All the Elements for Disaster: Wind Warrior
by Radicool223
Summary: When Cobalt is sucked into a medieval world, can he save it from the dark forces pressing from every side? The Black Knight adaptation for All the Elements for Disaster, don't skip!
1. Prologue

**Yay! Prologue time!**

**werewolf99: Okay, I'm done. Comment whatever you want, but if it has any relation to your fan characters or is insulting toward me at all, it gets deleted, no questions asked. I've been tolerant up till now, but I said it once and I'll say it again, NO EFFING FAN CHARACTERS! Do I make my point clear?**

**kittypwer56: I can't really make the chapters longer because I have lots of other work to do and keeping it as at least one chapter per week with as long as the chapters I have is pretty much my limit, but I can do more cliffhangers, and as for your other ideas, I like them and may use them at some point.**

**spisaacman: I don't think she'll stop any time soon. She's still not sure about her own emotions at this point.**

**graysean86: Thanks! I really tried to make that chapter good.**

**BLTSweg: I did… sort of.**

**greninja32: I like to do as many episodes as possible, but unfortunately season 2 only has a few ones I like.**

**SubZPhantomX: Thanks!**

A cloaked pony ran along a long path in the forest, her hoofsteps erratic, as if she were being chased. She reached a clearing, and just when it seemed that she would be able to get away, the things that had been chasing her appeared in front of her, blocking her path. Her crystal blue eyes flaring in panic, she whirled around to try and go back the way she'd come. This hope was squashed as well when another rank of enemies appeared that way, seeming to appear as a wisp of black smoke and gain solid form.

A white pony with all black armor and a large sword attached to her side leaped down from a ledge that overlooked the clearing. "Merluna!" she began, shouting through the helmet that veiled her face. "Thy attempts to escape hath been valiant, but thou knowest it is in vain!"

"Not so, Celestia, for I have one further trick!" Merluna shouted back defiantly, throwing back the hood of her cloak. She narrowed her eyes and her horn glowed a soft blue as she muttered words under her breath. "Hero from another world, come to my aid!"

All of a sudden a rift, like a vortex, opened up in the sky and a dark blue form fell out of it. As the rift closed and all who were on the ground looked up in awe, a quiet sound could be heard from the sky, growing louder the closer the blue form got: "aaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHH!"

The blue form hit the ground and sprang back onto his hooves almost instantly, looking around wildly. He glanced up and noticed two tiny specks falling after him. "No, no, no, no, not the chili toast!" With surprising speed and agility, he dove to one side and caught the first falling toast in his teeth and swallowed it in one huge bite, then seemed to roll backward and perform a similar dive to catch the second one in a similar manner, but keeping it in his teeth this time rather than eating it.

He fluttered into the air using his wings and settled back down on his hooves, looking about in confusion with the toast still in his mouth. "Mmph?" he offered up as his opinion of what was going on. Shaking his head, he rubbed his eyes and spat the toast out into his hoof. "Luna? Why are you–no…" he trotted in a circle around the cloaked blue pony and examined her from all sides. "While the cloak is extremely flattering for your figure…" he began, causing Merluna to blush. "I don't think you're who _I_ think you are."

"I am most certainly not." Merluna agreed. "But I am in grave peril."

"Grave peril, eh?" the blue pony looked around once more at the shadow warriors and the armored pony. "Oh, I get it. I've done this sort of thing before." Without hesitation, he tossed the toast up in the air and appeared to vanish, though that was only because he was moving almost too fast to be comprehended by the naked eye.

A trail of dust was kicked up in front of the shadow warriors, and when it went away, they were gone, destroyed by the blue pony. Said pony returned to his previous spot and caught the toast he'd just tossed in the air. He'd moved so fast that it hadn't even had time to complete its arc in the air before he was back where he started.

He smirked and stared at the black armored pony, slowly tossing the toast up and down on his hoof, his wings spread and his narrowed eyes indicating that he was ready for another fight. He almost looked as if he was _hoping_ for some sort of conflict, some excuse for violence.

"Thou art a skilled fighter." The armored pony remarked.

"Yep." He replied, his confident smile turning into a thin frown.

"But thou standest not a single chance against ME!" she drew her sword, clenching it between her teeth.

"We'll see about that!" the blue pony prepared to launch himself into what was likely a fight he would never return from, but found that he could not move. He looked around in irritation and saw that he was surrounded by a light blue aura, which was holding him still. "Hey! Lemme go!" he glared at Merluna.

"No, young one! We must retreat!"

His dark green eyes flickered from the armored pony to Merluna, as if judging his options. After a millisecond of intense though, he ceased fighting against the magic and nodded. "Okay, let's go!"

Merluna stopped the flow of magic and started to run once more, but then felt herself being picked up and carried at a far faster speed than she could've gone on her own, and glanced around to see that the brash blue pony was carrying her as he flew at high speeds back toward the forest.

Once they had disappeared, the armored pony growled and yelled out to the other ponies on top of the cliff. "FIND THEM AND KILL THEM!" then she rode off to do just that herself, if possible.

The four armored ponies on top of the cliff glanced at each other.

"Our leader wishes us to slaughter those which have committed no crime." The purple one said. "Is it prudent to continue with that course of action?"

"Dost thou suggest treason against the Queen?" the orange one said, in what sounded like an odd blend between a country accent and medieval speech. "Ah for one think that these are strange orders as well, but our greatest loyalty is to our Queen."

"We must obey her to our last breath if that is what she requires." The yellow one agreed.

"And if the Queen says they are worthy of death, then so be it." the cyan one finished the collective thought.

"You are right, Percival." The purple one sighed. "Though I wish that the order was merely capture and not execution. I suppose it is to be expected, for the Queen's behaviour of late grows strange."

"This is true, Lancelot." The yellow one nodded. "I have witnessed this as well. It seems she is ailed by something beyond a mortal sickness."

The orange one laughed. "Ya speak of a mortal sickness, Galahad, but the only mortal sickness evident to me as of late is the sickness consuming our kingdom."

"Aye, Gawain. It appears to be falling toward a dark fate." Percival agreed. "The Round Table is splintering before us, and we are powerless to stop it."

"Unless the cause is Merluna!" Lancelot broke into the dark discussion with a hopeful idea. "I may be construing this in all the wrong manners, but some say she has been practicing witchcraft!"

"If witchcraft has caused this, then the fall of witchcraft will be its cure!" Galahad caught onto the idea.

"Then we must pursue her and the other at once!" Percival decided. "Let us go!"

The four galloped off into the woods, in hot pursuit of Merluna and the strange blue pony that fell from the sky.

**And that's done! Wow, I think I did better than I expected, and twelve thousand words! That's gotta be some sort of record for my prologues!**

**I've also been reading Shakespeare, and I like the way he writes, so I've decided to incorporate repeated words and phrases into my writing, as well as implications and twists of phrase like does. Look out for that as the story progresses.**

**As always, review, follow, and favorite. Radicool223 out! **


	2. Ruthless

**Here we are. The first official chapter of this side story. Just so you remember, everything I write here is canon to the original.**

**Reviews:**

**SubZPhantomX: Lol! Witchcraft 4 life! But yes, they are vegetarian. I introduced the chili toast way back in X Files. So long ago…**

**graysean86: Eh, maybe.**

**Thatdudethere789: I've got plans for that.**

**kaijudude1000: Awesome! You have to PM me when it comes out!**

**BLTSweg: I am.**

**Psychic Nature: Thanks!**

**blueflare202101: I hoped someone would!**

"So why'd you stop me?" Cobalt asked as he and Merluna walked through the forest.

Merluna's eyes took on a look of concern. "For you would have died."

"Seriously? That's a lame reason." The dark blue pegasus rolled his eyes.

"What is injured about such an argument?" Merluna wondered. "Oh well, it is not of importance. Even though you are a hero, there is no way you would ever stand a chance against the Queen."

Cobalt narrowed his eyes. "Who can't fight a giant letter opener?"

"It is not the 'letter opener' that is the threat, but its scabbard."

"Really? What's she gonna do, poke me until I die?" Cobalt laughed.

"No hero, but the scabbard will heal her each time she is defeated. You must disable this power with the four sacred swords from the Knights of the Round Table."

"Huh. Okay. Shouldn't be that hard." Cobalt shrugged.

"Do not overestimate yourself, young one!" Merluna warned. "The four knights are strong. If you are not careful, then you will be dead!"

"How strong can this scabbard actually be, though?" Cobalt mused.

"Strong enough to turn the Queen's subjects into creatures of the underworld."

Cobalt's face twisted into one of disgust. "That's… sick."

"Indeed, which is why I have summoned you, hero, to aid in my resistance." Merluna smiled.

Cobalt froze and got an angry look on his face. "I'm not a hero. _Never_ call me a hero." He sighed squeezing his eyes shut and opening them wide, then letting them return to normal. "But I am one of the good guys, and I _will_ help you."

"That is good then." Merluna's confident expression had wavered when Cobalt had so vehemently denied that he was a hero. Now it was set in an arrangement of confusion. "But I cast the spell to summon a hero, and specifically a hero."

"Well sorry, but you got me." Cobalt growled, his shoulders hunching over and turning his walk into more that of a predator stalking his prey. "So what do I do?"

"There is a fifth sacred sword, the most powerful of them all, which lies in the middle of this forest. Only one with pure intent to save the land can pull it out." Merluna informed him, gesturing with her hoof in the general direction of southeast.

"Good. I'm off to get it then." Cobalt saluted and started to prepare one of his rocket takeoffs.

"Wait!" Merluna called out, tossing him a rusty sword, which he caught in his mouth by the handle, barely missing getting stabbed through the neck. "Take this, you'll need it."

"Let's fight letter openers with letter openers." Cobalt muttered dryly, quietly enough that Merluna wouldn't hear him. "Okay, thanks!" he said a little more loudly, nodding and performing the takeoff he'd tensed his muscles for.

Merluna watched him go, smiling sinisterly. She walked elegantly over to a healthy tree and ran her hoof up it, like a mother would small foal's chin. The tree immediately turned black and withered, crumpling in upon itself like a piece of dried out paper, leaving nothing but a pile of chapped dust.

As he flew past several wooden targets that he slashed in half easily, Cobalt realized that the sword was only effective if he was able to start a slash early and cut through the as quickly as possible so that he didn't hinder his natural speed.

He smirked as he performed an aerial roll over a small cliff and slid under a low hanging branch. "Sure is _challenging _here." He muttered sarcastically. "Let's see a _real_ fight."

Suddenly there was a loud grumble, and the ground started to shake. Cobalt's pupils shrunk and he grinned widely, giving him a crazed look. "Something big!" he stated the obvious. He suddenly recalled a sign he saw at the entrance to the area. It had said 'beware of the dragon, though it was misspelled, so it more looked like 'bewhere of the draggon'. A skull and crossbones and a cartoonish drawing of a large dragon eating a pony had lavishly decorated the sign. "So if it eats ponies, then it's evil…" Cobalt reasoned to himself, finding some sort of moral in the deed he'd proposed to himself and unconsciously decided to carry out anyway. "Yep, I'm killing it."

_Rrrrr… who dares to trespass on my killing grounds…?_ A deep voice growled as the rumbling ground started to settle into steady tremors that sounded uncannily like giant footsteps.

_Yep, evil_. Cobalt confirmed. "Hi!" he shouted, sounding innocent and childlike. "Look at me! I'm a target!"

_You will pay for alerting me to your presence…_ The dragon rumbled, and then a large head protruded from the mist that had been veiling it from Cobalt's vision. The giant head stretched its jaws wide in an earthshaking roar, blasting Cobalt with hot wind.

The blue pegasus withstood the torrent and smiled even wider. "Aren't you a big one!" He pulled his sword out of the sheath of the earth he'd stuck it in to talk to himself. "Okay, let's go!" he shouted through the handle, and launched himself in forward thrust at the dragon's face. The dragon was too big, too slow, and too unprepared to deal with this sudden onslaught, and so Cobalt's sword drove straight through its eye, half blinding it.

It let out a snarl of protest and pain and shook its head side to side, trying to get the annoyance off. It wasn't too worried about the wound, for it was a dragon from the underworld, meaning that it would replenish itself at midnight, so long as it wasn't killed. If that happened it was gone forever; it couldn't come back, and its eternal soul would be granted to another dark creature. It was an endless cycle, the dragon reflected, but it still didn't want to die. It quite liked being alive and able to eat ponies as he pleased.

Cobalt drew out his sword and flapped into the air, preparing a dive thrust. He shot downward, but the dragon was prepared for him this time, and knocked him away with its claws, heavily bruising him in the process. The pegasus hit the ground and rolled a couple of times, eventually coming to a skidding halt a few hundred feet away from the spot where the dragon stood. He didn't move, though the sword was still firmly clenched between his teeth.

The dragon lumbered over and stared down with one eye at its foe. _Is it dead?_ It asked itself. _Oh boy, I hope it is! Then I can eat it!_

As it leaned down to sniff the limp form one more time to make sure it didn't smell of sickness, the pegasus opened one eye, grinned and mumbled, "Gotcha!" swinging his sword in a high arc and slicing the dragon's horn clean off.

The dragon stared at its severed horn, then back down at the pony who'd cut it off. _Oh_. It said, and then dissolved into shadow.

Cobalt grinned, jumping to his hooves. "Nailed it." he muttered to himself, and started walking further into the mist.

A WHILE LATER

Cobalt stared up at the cliff, where he'd seen a rock with a sword protruding from it. He made the safe assumption that this was the sacred sword. He spat out the sword he'd gotten from Merluna and flew up there. After assessing the situation, he tilted his head sideways and gripped the handle between his teeth, pulling what he felt was sideways, but was really up.

The sword came loose as if the rock were butter, and he pulled it cleanly out. _Easy_. He thought to himself. He noticed that there was a tiny face close to the handle, and raised an eyebrow. Just as he was dismissing it as nothing, the eyes of the face opened. "You could say 'hello'." The face said agitatedly.

"Gah!" Cobalt dropped the sword and backed away from it in fright. He hadn't expected it to talk. After the initial shock passed away, he came closer and looked the face square in the eye. It didn't say anything more, making Cobalt wonder if it had been just a hallucination.

"Just stare at me then, I am majestic after all." the face said, smiling.

Cobalt frowned. "Not to mention egotistical."

"Caliburn is never egotistical!" the sword, Caliburn apparently, exclaimed indignantly. "And what can thou sayest of thyself?" Caliburn's tiny eyes swept up and down Cobalt, assessing him. "Thou carryest thyself as a racer, and not a swordspony. This is it? I have been drawn by a mere knave?!"

"Hey! I've helped save the world at least…" Cobalt counted in his head. "I don't know, twice at least!"

"Certainly not _this _one, I suspect." Caliburn huffed. "Look at the state of the forest! In the past it was lush and green! Now it is black, and the trees are dying!"

"It wasn't, though!" Cobalt protested. "I got summoned here and now I don't even know how to get back to my own world!"

"Oh, _pity_ the knave!" Caliburn mocked. "For he is so stupid and senseless that he cannot even sense the presence of an enemy lurking behind him!"

Cobalt suddenly understood what the rude sword was saying and lunged forward, grabbed Caliburn's handle in his teeth once more, and whipped around in time to parry a blow that would've cut his head clean off had he not blocked it.

Queen Celestia towered over him, with her jagged sword in her mouth, ready to strike. "Thy reflexes are… adequate, for a knave." She grudgingly acknowledged.

"I know!" Caliburn agreed. "He seems to fight like a dead badger!"

"Whose side are you on, anyway?!" Cobalt demanded, carefully retreating a few steps.

Celestia scowled. "Follow me if thou darest, knave!" she shouted in the royal Canterlot voice, nearly blasting Cobalt's eardrums out, and galloped off, leaving Cobalt in the dust.

"Will not thou accept the challenge?!" Caliburn demanded.

"Well _duh_!" Cobalt growled, launching himself after Celestia.

A few seconds later he caught up to her and began running after her. Every so often she would stop and turn to fight her, letting him retaliate against her blows, and after she let her guard down for a single moment, he leapt in and slashed across her helmet, forcing her to retreat or suffer worse.

After a while of this, she stopped the chase, breathing hard, and Cobalt slashed one more time across her chest. She let out a shout of pain and fell to her knees. The scabbard she wore on her side started to glow, and all of her wounds suddenly healed, including the scratches on her armor. "I shall leave thee alone… for now." She decided. "It befits not a queen to fight knaves such as thou." She vanished in a plume of black smoke.

"In other words, you're a COWARD!" Cobalt exploded angrily at the place where she'd vanished from, breathing heavily and bleeding from several of the bruises the dragon had given him.

"Calm thyself, knave, for you have won this battle." Caliburn told him. "Thou hast proven that it is within thy power to purge the sickness of this land, and thou must only collect the sacred swords to do so." The sword laughed. "Maybe thou might even become a knight thyself in the process."

Cobalt released the sword and let it hover on its own. He frowned. "True… I suppose it can't be that hard to do it."

"That's the spirit!" Caliburn encouraged. "Now onward, let us find the knights!"

**Chapter two? Done.**

**I've taken a couple of words from the prologue and expounded upon their use in this chapter, having different characters them in different ways. See if you can find them.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	3. Checking Back

**Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, I got a new computer and sort of had to go through all the processes of transferring data. But anyway, I'm going on it again. This chapter will be sort of a checking back in to Equestria, so forgive me if it's short.**

**SubZPhantom: Dang… I had the exact same idea!**

**ash the pokevenger: Okay then.**

**Spike Hedgehog I aim to outdo myself every chapter. It makes the story better.**

**blueflare202101: I can't tell what sense that's meant in…**

**Guest: It will be.**

**Inkwell: Can't reveal most of that right now… you'll see when it happens.**

Caliburn glanced curiously at Cobalt as they wandered through the forest, in blind search for one of the knights. Caliburn had rebuked Cobalt at first for such a passive approach when the kingdom was suffering as it was, but the blue pegasus had reminded him that the knights were searching for him actively, making it even easier to find them by doing nothing except helping villagers and such.

"So what of your home, knave?" the sword asked. "Is it much like this world?"

"More than you'd think." Cobalt answered, wincing and putting a hoof to his temple as if he were having a splitting headache. Caliburn raised an eyebrow as the pegasus coughed and spat out a little blood. "Art thou ailed by some sort of sickness, knave?"

"No." Cobalt shook his head and put on a reassuring grin. "I'm fine." The brief smile faded into an expression that could have been construed as either brooding or concerned. "I just hope they're doing okay there."

IN EQUESTRIA

They were not doing okay there.

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes and was greeted by fading moonlight outside the window. Spike was still asleep in his basket. As much as the baby dragon called her crazy and pointed out the slight dark circles underneath her eyes, Twilight still loved to go to sleep around eleven o'clock and wake up at six in the morning to get a head start on the day.

She smiled and trotted over to the mirror, levitating her hairbrush and beginning to do her best to tame the tangles in her mane. It currently looked as if she'd been in a large windstorm. As she slowly made progress on her mane, she frowned into the mirror; those dark circles were getting more prominent by the day. Maybe Spike was right. At least they weren't as bad as Rainbow Dash's.

The thought of the cyan pegasus brought a mixture of emotions out of Twilight's mind: anger, sadness, and… guilt. Twilight still felt slightly guilty for both the Mare-do-Well incident and the fact that she was now dating Cobalt… though it appeared that only Rainbow and Applejack knew at this point, and she was content with keeping it that way for now.

Speaking of Cobalt… Twilight glanced around the bedroom in confusion. She hadn't seen him this morning. He might've gone back downstairs to sleep on the bookshelves again. This wouldn't be surprising, considering that Twilight had finally forced him to sleep in the guest bed after he'd fallen off one of the shelves in the night and one of the late-night patrons of the library had seen him, screamed, and gone to the mayor to accuse Twilight of murder. That had taken several hours to resolve.

Twilight shrugged, maybe he'd just gone out for an early morning fly, or to do his weather pony duties early so he could have a free day. Once more, that wasn't an uncommon thing. It seemed as if he never slept anymore, and when she questioned him about it, he gave her a solemn look and said 'nightmares'. What nightmares could drive a pony to insomnia eluded Twilight at the moment, but she was going to find out eventually.

She suddenly attained a wicked grin. If nopony was up besides her… then… _butter_.

She made one final pass through her mostly smoothed mane with the brush and then set off at a quick trot down the stairs and into the kitchen area. She flung open the refrigerator with her magic and levitated the butter out, closing the refrigerator as quietly as she could afterward. She grinned as she took a large bite out of the stick of creamy, salty goodness and chewed on it while staring out the window and watching the sun slowly rise.

Once again she was amazed at her mentor's power. It must be an immense effort to raise the sun every day, but then to turn right around and run an entire kingdom? Twilight figured she'd choke under the pressure if she had to do that.

A figure crossed the ground below, which Twilight's tired eyes glossed over at first. She then did a double take and stared more intently at the figure. Although the light created a glare on the window, Twilight instantly recognized the pony. It was Rainbow Dash, looking depressed. The lavender unicorn frowned and considered what to do. She could always just ignore her, but upon closer inspection, she noticed that there were tears freely pouring out of the cyan pegasus' eyes and running down her face. That decided it for Twilight; she had to go and talk to her friend.

She quickly swallowed the glob of butter and trotted over to the door, swinging it open with her magic. Peering outside, Twilight began to trail Rainbow. "Rainbow Dash!" she called out after a few seconds.

Rainbow stiffened, swiped at her eyes in an effort to brush away the tears that she'd paid no mind to before, and whipped around to glare at Twilight. "_What_?!" she snarled.

Twilight jerked back a little in surprise, but quickly regained her composure. She hesitated for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to phrase her question. "Why are you crying?" she eventually decided.

"None of your business." Rainbow mumbled, turning back away.

Twilight took a few more steps toward her, her concern turning into irritation at her friend. "Even if it isn't my business, you're still my friend!"

Rainbow turned her head just enough to give Twilight another glare. "I _forgave_ you. I _didn't_ give you permission to interfere in my personal life!"

All of a sudden both of them felt something cold touch their back, almost as if a wind had blown straight into them and stopped there.

"I can't believe you!" Twilight's agitation suddenly spiked and she shoved Rainbow.

The response was nearly instantaneous, and the cyan pegasus whipped around, landing a punch straight on the side of Twilight's face. Twilight's head snapped to the side from the impact, and as she backed away a few steps, she spat some blood out on the ground.

"You wanted me to respond, didn't you?!" Rainbow snarled, baring her teeth and narrowing her eyes. "Well I hope you're happy!"

The double vision Twilight had acquired from the blow merged back into one picture, and she leaped forward at Rainbow, performing an awkward tackle and knocking her down. Rainbow retaliated by kicking Twilight off with her hind legs, and sprang back to her hooves, ready to attack.

The cyan pegasus suddenly found herself floating off the ground without flapping her wings. She gasped as she realized what was happening, but was too late as Twilight mercilessly slammed her into the ground over and over again, battering and bruising her in the process.

Rainbow shakily tried to push herself up with her forehooves, but failed as her forelegs buckled and she fell face-first onto the ground and lay there, unconscious.

Twilight felt the cold feeling leave her and her breath caught in her throat as she realized what she had just done. She rushed forward and picked Rainbow up with her magic and began to run as fast as she could toward the hospital.

Meanwhile in the forest a few miles off a round craft retreated back into the wilderness as its pilot lowered his binoculars.

"Subtle manipulation phase… success…"

BACK WITH COBALT

"I'm sure they're fine." Cobalt shook himself out of his thoughts.

"That is good knave, for the enemy has appeared!" Caliburn announced, causing Cobalt to whip around and see a familiar looking purple pony in armor advancing on him with a sword.

"Prepare for battle, knave!" the pony shouted.

**Cliffhanger! I hope you enjoyed!**

**Radicool223 out!**


	4. Another Chapter

**Ah, here we go. Chapter four. Now I noticed a little bit of (expected) discontent about the cliffhangers last chapter, so I'm going to resolve them both in one go! Prepare for abrupt and well-placed scene changes, and let's get started!**

"Battle eh?" Cobalt grinned. "Good, things were getting boring around here!"

"Indeed, knave! Prepare to feel the kiss of death!" the knight shouted. "I shall purge this land of its sickness by slaying you and then the traitor Merluna!"

"Gee, do you think that'll happen, Caliburn?" Cobalt asked his sword.

"It shall, if you do not have your wits about you when you fight!" Caliburn retorted. "Do not take Sir Lancelot lightly! She is a formidable opponent!"

"Wait…" Cobalt held up a hoof as if to tell the others that he needed a moment. "She…? _Sir_…?" then it clicked in his brain. "Honorary title, right?"

"Indeed." Lancelot nodded, drawing her sword in her teeth and uttering one intelligible word through the handle, "DIE!" as she charged him.

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

Twilight charged through the hospital doors, levitating a dead-to-the-world Rainbow Dash after her. "Please! Help!" she shouted as she got to the reception desk. "She's really hurt!"

The receptionist, a dull-looking light brown unicorn mare, gave her a long stare, and then shifting her line of sight to the battered pegasus Twilight was levitating before sighing and replying as if it was the least interesting thing she'd seen all day. "And how was she injured like such at five o'clock in the morning?"

_Even her _voice_ is as boring as she looks_… Twilight thought, before rearing up and putting her forehooves on the desk, glaring at the receptionist square in the eye. She felt another prick of guilt as she realized that she really didn't have the right to be rude, since this was technically her fault. "Look, lady! I don't have time for your _stupid _questions! My friend is hurt and she needs medical attention NOW!" Twilight didn't care that she was attracting strange looks from the few ponies in the hospital.

The receptionist's blank stare remained for a moment before her eyes slowly widened as if (_finally_) in shock. "Well then ma'am. We'll look at your friend, but it looks as if she is only bruised."

"Can you not see the blood?!" Twilight demanded, gesturing at the red liquid seeping out of some of the cuts on Rainbow's side. _If I'd known going to the hospital would be this complicated, I'd have just treated her at home_.

"I'm sorry miss. We'll just take a look and see if she's not going to die." The receptionist fired up her magic with what looked like as much effort as talking had seemed to take her and grabbed Rainbow Dash, and Twilight let go with hers, feeling the migraine that she'd gotten from the extended use of her magic go away.

Miss Drab'n'Boring levitated Rainbow, who was now looking unnervingly like a corpse, though that was probably just Twilight's panicked mind creating a delusional idea for her to worry over, into the back room. "Okay, miss. You'll just have to wait for now."

Twilight exhaled in relief. "Thank you."

IN OLD CANTERLOT

Cobalt grunted as he was forced to exhale, having dodged a sword thrust but not far enough, as Lancelot's armored shoulder slammed into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He used the momentum to roll back, jumping upward and using the trunk of a dead tree as a springboard to launch himself at Lancelot, roll in midair, tackle her, and bowl her over.

Lancelot reacted with the speed of years of battle training and whipped around, cutting Cobalt in his side. Thankfully the blow was blunt enough to only hack a little ways into his skin and be stopped by his ribcage, not puncturing any of his vital organs as a sword-point-first stab would've.

He retreated a little ways and felt the cut with his hoof. Blood was seeping out of it, and when he held up his hoof to inspect it, he noticed that it had been splattered with dark red liquid. He silently thanked the universe that it hadn't been on one of his bruises, or else he might've passed out from the pain.

"Hello there!" Caliburn called out, sounding bored. "Perfectly good blade right here! Wilt thou not use me?"

"Working on it!" Cobalt growled through the sword handle, parrying another one of Lancelot's slashes.

"Hah!" Lancelot gloated, seeing that her opponent was bleeding. "Dids't thou really think that thou coulds't defeat me?"

She suddenly stopped as she felt her sword violently knocked out of her mouth by another. Her eyes widened as she saw the blue pegasus she'd been so certain she could defeat standing right in front of her with his eyes blazing with fury. "Yes, I think I did." He kicked her in the chest of her armor and knocked her down into a small section of marsh, turning to retrieve the fallen knight's sword.

"I-impossible!" Lancelot breathed, realizing that this weak blue pegasus had just launched himself across the clearing in the middle of the forest, a feat the would've taken even the fastest pony in the land, Sir Percival, two seconds at least, in less than a second. It was almost as if he had used a teleportation spell, he had moved so fast. But that was impossible, as she could clearly see that he had no horn, and the fact that there were no other alicorns in existence besides the Queen and that traitor Merluna. "Wh-what dids't thou–"

"I _won_." Cobalt said flatly, facing her with a stare as he picked up her sword, holding it in his mouth along with his own.

"But why did not thou simply finish me off?" Lancelot revised her question.

"That was _my_ question."

Cobalt grimaced. "I don't murder innocent ponies. You're not evil. You're just misled."

Lancelot opened her mouth as if to say something else, but then shut it just as quickly. _Do I…_ she wondered. _Am I just misled? Did _I _just try to murder an innocent pony_? She was so consumed in these troubled thoughts that she completely missed Cobalt's exit.

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

"Miss Twilight Sparkle?" Twilight's ears pricked as she heard the receptionist call her name.

She raised her head and looked at the dull brown pony. "Yes?"

"Your friend is okay, if you would like to visit her." The receptionist sounded much more alert, and Twilight noted a cup of coffee now held in the grasp of her magic.

Twilight stood, stretched, and hopped off the bench she'd been lying on, zoned out. Once more ignoring the stares from the ponies in the waiting room, she followed the receptionist through the doors to the back and up two flights of stairs, coming to a room marked 331.

The receptionist nodded and trotted back down the stairs, leaving Twilight alone.

Twilight took a deep breath and opened the door, prepared for any amount of verbal assault imaginable. She deserved it. She was instead met with utter and complete silence, and as she trotted over to the hospital bed in confusion, she got her answer for why it was like this; Rainbow Dash was still asleep. She wasn't in a state of unconsciousness anymore, thankfully, and was instead apparently in a state of light dreaming.

Whatever she was dreaming about must have put her in a state of distress, because the cyan mare was gripping the bedsheets as if they were her last hope at life, and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, but not tightly enough to stop the flow of a few tears out onto the pillow.

Twilight felt a stab of pity for her friend. She looked so small and fragile, huddled under the sheets.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, and turned around, leaving the room.

**And there we go! Sorry for the short chapter. I've got a lot of stuff going on, but I think I did okay on this one. I don't think I'll check back in on Equestria again until this story is over, but don't worry, it'll still be just as interesting.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	5. Finding the Blacksmith

**And I'm back! This chapter is in mostly first person POV, so the narration doesn't exactly correlate with the Shakespeare-esque style I've been doing lately, but look for some of the key words that you've noted, if you've noted any.**

**Reviews-**

**Inkwell (Chapter 3): Hah, yeah. But I've still got at least eight more chapters to work with, and I plan to use those as liberally as possible to squeeze the most possible out of them.**

**BLTSweg (Chapter 3): Indeed.**

**SubZPhantomX (Chapter 3): I'm just writing what I feel would be realistic, and a fight was going to happen eventually. I like messing with emotions and pushing characters almost to their breaking point, because that's the most fun to work with.**

**graysean86 (Chapter 3): Yep, got a lot planned for Percival.**

**Wolvmbm (Chapter 3): Dang it! You already thought of the battle line imagery! I was gonna use that… I guess I still can, though. About Shining Armor, I think I'm gonna have Cobalt have a bit of a 'been there, done that' reaction, but that's subject to change.**

**greninja32 (Chapter 3): Maybe. That whole 'subtle manipulation testing' sounded ominous to me, and I'm the one who wrote it!**

**SubZPhantomX: Not necessarily, I thought it might be easier to work them in with Gawain, but that's in the next chapter, so there's a wait.**

**Inkwell: Thanks.**

**werewolf99: Yep.**

**Okay, now that's out of the way–**

Cobalt's POV

I managed to stagger a few hundred yards before my legs buckled and I fell to the ground, my vision going blurry and my thoughts getting fuzzy and lightheaded.

After the ringing in my ears died down enough, I heard Caliburn speaking rather loudly. "Knave? Knave?!" despite my condition, I rolled my eyes and once again stuffed away a retort for calling me a knave for later. "Art thou all right?!"

"Yeah. Fine." I muttered, using what felt like the last of my energy to stand up. Almost instantly I fell over again, my vision doing another backflip into the cosmic ocean of psychedelic blurriness. I felt the cut that Lancelot had left in my side with my hoof again, and noticed that there was still blood liberally flowing out of it. That didn't make sense, because it wasn't deep, and it should've clotted by now. "Hey Caliburn? Why is this still bleeding?" I asked, raising my voice to express my urgency through my otherwise level tone.

Caliburn let out a huff, as if he couldn't believe that I didn't know this little bit of information about a foreign world. Sometimes that sword could be a real pain in the–

My thoughts were broken as another wave of sick feeling washed over me. Scratch that, not just a wave, a _tidal_ wave.

Finally Caliburn answered. "That is a cut from a sacred sword such as myself. It cannot be healed by any natural means."

"So… magic." My distorted thoughts somehow managed to come to the logical conclusion. "I need magic."

"Indeed." Caliburn agreed. "There is a way to do two things at once, healing you _and_ sharpening my blade. Alas, centuries in stone has taken its toll on my sharpness."

"Sure, that's a problem." I muttered sarcastically. "So _how_?"

"There is a Blacksmith in the town who can help both causes, as she is a unicorn. The only challenge is to get there."

"Challenge, yes." I agreed, unsteadily rising to my hooves and taking a step forward. Thankfully I seemed to be able to stay standing this time. Just as I was contemplating whether I could make it to the distant town before I bleed out if I flew _really_ fast, I heard galloping behind me.

Silently praying that it wasn't Lancelot come to take her revenge, I turned around and saw a stallion pulling a cart full of boxes of goods behind him. He looked to be heading in the general direction of the town, and I flagged him down with my wing.

He nearly didn't see me, and I guessed that was because I was streaked with mud and covered in dead leaves from the forest floor. I had the perfect camouflage as long as I stood still, however I'd stick out like a tower in the middle of a flat town if I were to go into town looking like this.

"Whoa, son!" the guy skidded to a halt and studied me. His vision fixed on my wound that was still covering the forest floor with blood. "Thou needeth some help there?"

I frowned and let my thoughts whirl for a moment before replying. This guy reminded me of somepony, but it was at least a second before I could place it. He was that donut salesman from the shop across the street from Sugarcube Corner.

That led my mind in another direction. I realized that everypony I'd seen so far, besides the knights of the underworld, was a parallel of somepony I knew, or somepony I'd seen back in my world. I wondered if there was an alternate version of me… and what would happen if I met him.

"Son?" the guy repeated. "Dost thou need some help?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." I shook my head to clear it, but it did nothing to clear the constant stabbing sensation in the side of my skull. "You have a bandage or something?" I made a vain attempt to staunch the blood flow with my wing, unintentionally caking it with the sticky red liquid and making it nearly impossible to fly with if I didn't find some way to clean it quickly. _Great_.

"Ay, I do." The brown stallion procured a white cloth from his cart, and I took it and wrapped it around my ribcage. Instantly the flow of blood slowed to a steady drip through the cloth, which was rapidly turning crimson. "Keep it, young one." The guy frowned once more. "Dost thou requireth any more aid?"

"I don't." I said. "Thanks."

The stallion raised an eyebrow. "Thou speakest in a strange manner. And…" he glanced to my side and must've seen Caliburn, because his eyes widened. "Thou hast the fifth sacred sword!"

I quickly started to wipe my bloodstained wing off on the ground, sensing I'd need to use it soon, probably to get away from this guy.

"The helper of the traitor!" the guy gasped, his eyes quickly flitting from Caliburn to me. In less than two seconds, he'd drawn a knife from a scabbard I hadn't noticed on his belt. "Die!"

"Whoa! Hold it!" I protested, stalling for time while I assessed the situation. I couldn't fight this guy, he was innocent. Besides, if I tried, I might end up losing because of my condition. "Just because I look like him doesn't mean–gah!" The guy swiped at me with the knife. Luckily he wasn't a good marksman, because if he had been, I would've had an eye put out or something. (**Just letting you know, that was an ironic statement there.**) As it was, he nicked my ear and I felt a warm trickle of even more blood flowing down onto my forehead.

I spread my wings, wincing as I felt the wound aggravated.

"Knave?" Caliburn said slowly.

"Yes?" I asked in the same slow, level tone.

"Run."

"Yeah."

I grabbed him by the handle in my teeth and took off at as fast as I could, leaving a few dark blue feathers and a gust of wind in my wake.

I rocketed above the treeline to get an assessment of where I needed to go. In the distance I spotted a large town in the distance.

"There!" Caliburn informed me.

"Got it." I nodded, feeling a sudden, unprecedented rush of energy course through my muscles. "Sonic BOOM!" I shouted, and shot downwards at an angle, so that I'd land at the town.

I hurtled through the air at insane speeds. Caliburn felt the need to comment upon this and shouted, "ART THOU INSANE?!"

"YES!" I laughed, and heard a crack as I shattered the sound barrier for like, the third time. After that, I didn't hear anything else, because it wasn't fast enough to catch me. I slowed myself before skidding to a halt on the ground of the grassy area right in front of the town. I turned and observed the expanding ring that I'd left.

I started as I realized that it wasn't its usual blue anymore.

It was pure black.

"What… is that?" Caliburn breathed.

I frowned and narrowed my eyes. "It's… the Sonic Darkboom."

ONE KNIGHT OF THE WIND RIFF LATER

(**Dang, almost fifteen hundred words before I even do the title thing? That's an academy record.)**

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

Third Person POV

"Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle froze as she heard Rainbow Dash say her name. Ever so slowly, she turned around and saw Rainbow sitting up in the hospital bed and rubbing bleary eyes. "Wha-what happened?" her exhausted sounding voice cracked. "Why am I here?"

Twilight gulped, remembering the experience through her point of view. The memories now terrified her, because they revealed both of the mares' vicious sides. In the memories, her vision was tinted blood red. "Um, Rainbow Dash? How much do you remember?"

"I–" Rainbow's face set in a pensive expression. "I was walking to work… a-and…" her eyes clouded. "Nothing. I woke up here." She looked down and flinched at the many cuts on her side. "How'd I get _these_?"

Twilight inwardly sighed in relief. Rainbow didn't remember being slammed into the ground and knocked unconscious. Now all she had to do was make up a believable story. "Uh, the mail service dropped a window on you and it shattered on your head and knocked you out. The glass broke and you fell on top of it, so that's where you got the cuts from." _Yeah, that sounds about right_.

"What?" Rainbow groaned. "That's _stupid_!" Twilight flinched, wondering if her lie had been so bad that the cyan pegasus had seen through it. Those fears were put to rest as she went on, "Why couldn't I have gotten it from something _cool_, like a fight?"

Twilight tried to stifle a giggle at her friend's agitation at so trivial a prospect. Unluckily, Rainbow must've seen this, because her expression quickly changed to one of anger. "Are you laughingat me?"

"Uh, no–"

"Get out."

Twilight stiffened. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Rainbow's eyes were hard. "Get out."

"Why?"

"You think this is so funny, then leave and go laugh about it with your _boyfriend_." Rainbow growled cuttingly. Her voice cracked once more on the last word.

Twilight flinched. She briefly considered staying and arguing, but the glistening of fresh tears on her friend's eyes convinced her otherwise. "O-okay… I'll just go." She turned and slowly walked out the door.

BACK IN OLD EQUESTRIA

Cobalt's POV

I wandered around town for a while, returning the many odd stares I got and attempting to hold the makeshift bandages in place.

After I'd looped the town at least twice, I noticed some of the townsponies caressing weapons that I was pretty sure they hadn't had before. "Yo Caliburn? Do these ponies look a little… aggressive to you?"

"Indeed." Caliburn replied with a nod… or at least I assumed it was a nod. It was hard to tell since he didn't have a neck, but it made sense that if he dipped down a little it would count as a nod. "I had plans to mention it, but it appereth thou hast gotten to it first."

I frowned and quickened my stride. "Yeah, it's a little weird." I wound my way into an alley, and after a few more seconds, I realized that I was still walking but not going anywhere. I got the uncanny feeling that there was some sort of magic acting on me, and looked down at my hooves to see a light blue glow surrounding them. "What the–" I had time to say before a hoof covered my mouth and I was pulled through a door in the side of the alley.

"Shh! Quiet!" a feminine voice hissed, and I started as I realized the slight accent that punctuated those syllables. I struggled and managed to work the hoof that covered my mouth to the side. "Rarity?"

"That is my name. But to most, I am know as the Blacksmith."

I was allowed to turn around, and saw something I never thought I'd see: Rarity not looking, as she put it in her own words, fabulous. She still had her usual white coat, but it was marred by several small cuts, and streaked with dirt. Her mane was tied back loosely, seemingly to keep it out of her work, and she had white tape around her hooves, which was only noticeable because her fur wasn't pure white, but tinted just slightly gray.

In other words, she'd never looked better to me.

"What art thou doing?!" she demanded in a low, agitated voice. "Thou should knoweth thy presence is not welcome in this town!"

"You seem fine with me." I reasoned.

The Blacksmith rolled her eyes. "Of course!" she leaned closer and whispered. "I wish to aid thee in whatever way possible in bringing justice upon the _honorable_ queen." She spat the second to last word with such distaste it made me think she didn't mean it. That was probable.

_Isn't _she_ a gem!_ The voice in my head exclaimed. _Promoting murder with such enthusiasm_.

_Save your puns_. I thought back. _And it's not murder, it's justice_. I directed my last thought to myself: _Isn't it?_

"Sure, okay." I shrugged. Suddenly it dawned on me, "Hey, I was looking for you."

The Blacksmith blew several loose strands of purple mane out of her face. "To whet thy new sword, I presume."

"I'm guessing that means sharpen, so yes." As if his mention in the conversation had summoned him from out of a hole in hyperspace, Caliburn's voice shouted from outside. "Knave?! Where dids't thou go?"

The Blacksmith's eyes narrowed. "Friend or foe?" she asked me.

"Friend." I reassured her. "Just my sword."

She looked at me as if I were somewhat insane, but opened the door with her magic nonetheless, waving Caliburn in.

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

Third Person POV

Twilight walked slowly through town, feeling as if she had her own personal raincloud hovering over her shoulders. Nothing today had gone right, and she _still _hadn't found Cobalt. She wondered if he'd been there whether he would've managed to prevent the fight or not. Some of the townsfolk gave her a strange look as she passed by, but she ignored it.

Suddenly she heard hoofsteps behind her, and she turned slowly to see Rarity running up behind her. "Twilight? Twilight!"

Twilight sighed. "What, Rarity?"

"I've…" Rarity frowned. "I've had a dream… or to say better, a portent, because it has stayed in my mind for longer than usual."

Twilight raised her eyebrows in an expression of slight interest. "Go on."

Rarity pursed her lips. "In this dream, I was in a dark space. I wandered for a while, and then I came across a small pool of blood. Upon closer inspection, I saw Cobalt at the edge of the puddle, smiling and bathing his hooves in it. I– I got the feeling that it was… pony blood."

"What?" Twilight demanded.

"I don't understand it, but it seemed real that I had to tell you–"

"How could you even think for a minute that that kind of dream was real?" Twilight could feel herself getting agitated. "How could you even _consider_ that Cobalt would do something like that?! He's not like that!" Twilight realized that she felt like she was trying as much to convince herself as she was her friend. She didn't know how much she could ever trust Cobalt's good nature after seeing the… thing in his head.

Rarity stiffened, and her eyes glazed over. "Twilight Sparkle, _the darkest heart cannot be trusted_." She hissed.

The white coated mare shook her head as if to clear it a moment later, her expression returning to the neutral it had been before. "I suppose if you're so convinced, then there's nothing to worry about."

"Wait, what did you just tell me?" Twilight asked, utterly confused. "What was that about the 'darkest heart' and all?"

"Twilight." Rarity chided. "I said no such thing. I just agreed there was nothing to worry about."

Twilight swallowed hard. "Okay Rarity. I'll… see you around." She turned and started walking back to the library once more, but this time seeming a little more nervous that before.

IN OLD EQUESTRIA

Cobalt's POV

"Incredible!" the Blacksmith exclaimed, looking over Caliburn as she worked on filing his blade to a sharper point with a spinning wheel of stone. "A sentient, rational piece of weaponry."

"I am amazing." Caliburn smirked arrogantly as he felt his blade being sharpened in what might be comparable to having one's mane cut.

"And boastful." I muttered to myself. "So Blacksmith." I spoke up. "Any suggestions on what I should do next?"

_Murder_. The voice suggested helpfully.

"If I wast thou," The Blacksmith said, not looking up from her work. "I would go and see the Mare of the Mere and ask for her guidance."

"I suppose she's in the shrine I saw at the lake?"

"Indeed." She nodded. "How is the bandage working?"

"Great." I'd nearly forgotten about the open wound because the pain had nearly faded unless I moved. "I'll do that. Thanks for the tip."

"It's no trouble." The Blacksmith cracked a smile for the first time. "But you must wait until I'm done."

"Right..." I laughed sheepishly.

**There we go! ASK will be up tomorrow. See you then.**


	6. The Mare of the Mere

**Okay, since I can't stop going back to narrate events in Equestria, I'm going to make this sort of a two-perspective story, told from the alternating viewpoints of various ponies still in Equestria and Cobalt.**

**THE REASON WHY THIS IS SHORT: I had a sickness of some sort, so when I wasn't at school or doing homework, I had no ****energy to write or anything. I'm so sorry, I should be normally updating next week... on Wednsday.**

_The darkest heart cannot be trusted_. Those words echoed in Twilight's mind as she walked, head down, through town toward the library. What could Rarity have meant? It didn't make sense. _The darkest heart_–

Her thoughts were shattered as a black form landed in front of her. She jerked back and retreated from the red eyes in her face. "Gah!" she shook her head and took a closer look at the pony in front of her. "Sh-Shadow?!" she felt her face immediately start to burn. "What are you doing here?!"

He kept his face expressionless. "I came to warn you."

"Warn me about what?" she growled, growing more embarrassed by the minute at the frightened way she'd reacted to his appearance. This in turn made the blush she'd gotten for no reason grow deeper. "If I remember right, the last few times I saw you, you tried to kill Cobalt."

"Yes, well…" Shadow grimaced. "It would be great if I could do that too, but I didn't plan to this time."

"Good, because you'd have to get through _me_ first." She narrowed her eyes. "He and I are dating now and I would protect him with my life."

"You're dating?" Twilight thought she saw the faintest glimmer of hurt in Shadow's eyes, but it faded as quickly as a morning mist. "Whatever. I only came to warn you that the good doctor's next plan will happen very soon. Be careful. Don't trust anyone. See you around." And with that he cast a teleportation spell and vanished in a flash of green light.

Twilight's mouth hung open in shock. That was the second time today that she'd been warned not to trust. First it had been 'the darkest heart', and then nopony whatsoever. At first she'd that that the darkest heart referred to Cobalt based on what she'd seen of the inner workings of his mind. Now she was confused. It seemed that the darkest heart was tied to Shadow somehow, because he had appeared right after the warning itself. But then that must cancel out his warning to not trust anypony… though he had used a different word to refer to everypony… and _why_ was she _still_ blushing?! _Why _did the thought of Shadow made her heart pound?!

"Argh!" she growled aloud. Her thoughts whirled and made no sense, but she managed to boil it down to two questions. One: who could she trust? Two: why did Shadow make her feel this way? She tried to clear her thoughts and focus on only those two questions, but she found it was nearly impossible.

ONE KNIGHT OF THE WIND RIFF LATER

Cobalt slashed once more, cutting a bloody gash in another one of the knights of the underworld. It vanished on the spot, like all the rest, but Cobalt winced again, knowing that it was really just a converted innocent pony. He breathed a sigh of relief and rested for a few seconds, knowing that he had a moment of peace before he took a few more steps and a couple more dark warriors sprung up.

Humph, he didn't even need to wait; there was already a dark warrior haunting his hoofsteps wherever he went.

"Thou art quiet as of late." Caliburn noted. "Art thou tired of being a knave already?"

"I've been here a day at most." Cobalt muttered. No matter how contemptuous Caliburn could get, the wind warrior was able to meet him at it and raise him several notches. "And I'm not a knave. I'm nothing but a tool Merlina summoned." His voice took on a tone of bitterness, the knowledge that he was only here because somepony had _needed_ him spurring the feeling on.

"And already you have defeated a Knight of the Round Table." Cobalt's sword hovered on his own and faced him with a frown. "Is that not enough to be proud of?"

"No." Cobalt replied flatly. "I've done nothing except harm innocents and kill an evil dragon."

"At least the evil dragon must be something to be proud of killing." Caliburn pressed.

"Sure. Another death." The dark blue pegasus' mouth twitched into a deeper frown. He didn't want to just keep killing and harming. He wasn't a hero. He was a murderer masquerading as a savior. He _couldn't_ keep doing this. He was afraid that was how the Darkboom had taken over his normal Sonic Boom.

Another wave of dark warriors appeared, and Cobalt stabbed through them. He glanced back behind them after they were all dissolved. He noticed the trail of blood behind him and grimaced at the dark crimson trail that splattered the dark leaves underfoot.

AN HOUR LATER

Cobalt finally made his way to a lake with a small island with a half-temple in the middle, leaving a trail of darkness and bloodshed behind him. There was nopony there, yet he'd expected that, after the kind of day he'd been having since he'd gotten here. He heaved a breath and felt the open wound in his side stretch and sting. Taking wing, he flapped over the waters and into the grotto, sitting down and letting Caliburn float.

After a few minutes of impatient hoof tapping and glancing around, a bright blue light exploded in the middle of the roofed area. Once it faded, there was a mare there, clothed in a prophetess' dress. Strangely though, it was somepony Cobalt recognized and never would've expected to be in such a position as Mare of the Mere: Pinkie Pie.

"Hello, stranger." The Mare of the Mere's voice was incredibly calm, a contrast to what Cobalt was used to. He never would've expected that voice to be this… calm. "You have travelled a long way."

"Yep." Cobalt nodded. "So I hear you have a prophecy?"

"Indeed, though I am quite unsure of the meaning of it at this point."

"Then let us hear it and see if we may make sense of it." Caliburn prompted.

"I will. But I will not divulge this information unto thee until thou hast done the deed." The Mare of the Mere said with a slight smile.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Cobalt asked, already getting irritated with her mysteriousness.

The Mare's smile got wider. "I cannot tell. But the virtuous will figure it out."

"Good luck with that." Cobalt muttered. "Okay, I'll do what I can."

"Good." The Mare nodded. "You will do well in this quest. Now I must go. Good luck, hero!" she vanished in the same flash of blue light.

"Right. Let's do this." Cobalt grinned, grabbing Caliburn and taking flight out of the grotto.

**Short chapter, but lots of plot development and such. I altered the Lady of the Lake's role a little bit, mostly because I couldn't remember what she did in the first place, but I think this lets me tie in with my story more. Hope you enjoyed! Radicool223 out!**


	7. The Quest

**Hey wassup guys? Radicool223 here again, with another very symbolic chapter. This is mostly narration. See if you can spot some of the cross-references to earlier chapters and stories. Also, FINALLY GAWAIN!**

**Spike Hedgehog: Thanks!**

**decode9: Yeah, I know. The role itself is a bit of a Friendship is Witchcraft joke, with Pinkie Pie being like a sorcerer and all.**

**Wolvmbm: Hah, I hadn't even thought of Cadance yet. I'm going to have to ponder her character and try to fish out a plausible reaction.**

**werewolf99: I can't answer that for purpose of plot (the story kind).**

**Inkwell: Yeah, that got sort of started all the way back in X Files. You know, like a million years ago.**

Cobalt cast his gaze downward as he walked a grassy path through the sparse forest. As he walked the landscape started to steadily change to barren grassland, save a couple of large war carts and stone structures.

"Knave? Thy color hath… darkened." Caliburn's voice caused him to look up at the sword. His gaze instantly shifted down toward his fur, and he saw that Caliburn was right; his color had indeed turned a darker shade of blue.

He inwardly groaned. How was he supposed to explain _that_ to Twilight and the others back home? Not only was his condition getting worse, he would have to admit to Twilight that she'd been right. Closing his eyes, he assured himself that he'd have been gone long enough that they wouldn't even notice.

"What might be the cause?" once again Caliburn drew him out of his current thoughts and onto another train of wondering.

His mind drew him into remembering something from the time that Discord had attacked. When he'd been 'Discorded', as the condition had been named, he'd apparently turned black and gray and become depressed, the complete opposite of what he was. He hadn't noticed anything then, but neither had the others. To all of them, it had just seemed like that was the only thing to do at the time. Now that he thought about it, that was probably what had opened him up to the thing in his head. Now it was probably just caused by what he felt.

What did he feel?

Hopelessness.

He remembered once Rainbow Dash had told him that if he were ever an element of harmony he'd be the element of hope. He then remembered that all the others, when they'd been Discorded, had been manipulated into losing the virtue that their element represented, and that was physically shown by them turning gray.

Tying those two ideas together… he was slowly becoming Discorded, and this time he wasn't sure whether there was a way to reverse it.

"I don't know." He answered Caliburn. "But nothing's wrong." He plastered a fake smile on his face. "I'm… _fine_." He forced the word out past clenched teeth; another wave of pain had just passed over him, and it took all his willpower to resist crying out in agony.

At the same moment, a loud wail of despair sounded from further into the forest.

"Tis not 'all right'." Caliburn remarked ironically.

"Can it." Cobalt growled, pushing through the underbrush toward the sound of the cry. When he managed to find another small clearing, the source of the cry was evident. A small russet filly sat with tears streaming down her face.

Even in Cobalt's terrible state, he felt a stab of compassion for the small filly and rushed over, crouching beside her. "Hey, hey." He said in a quiet, reassuring tone, which he really had to strain for due to the constant pain wracking his body. "What's wrong?"

"A big dwagon… destwoyed my town… and now I'm all alone!" the filly's speech was punctuated by sniffles, and she broke down into full-fledged sobs.

"That is… terrible…" for once Caliburn sounded sincere.

Cobalt set his jaw. "How can I help?"

The filly looked up, her light blue eyes shining with wonder. "Really?"

Cobalt nodded. "At least I can do one purely good thing while I'm here."

"Can you kill the dwagon?" the little filly asked.

Cobalt's expression stayed the same, but his eyes took a look of utter terror. He couldn't believe it. He'd wanted to do something good… and he was asked to kill again. "Sure." He said, his gaze not moving from a spot just above the filly's shoulder, afraid to meet her eyes. "I will."

Now, one must understand that those words were not spoken with a full mind, but rather hollowly, and as if he were merely saying that and not making any resolution to do so. Really, the blue pegasus felt like utterly refusing the request. But judging what he'd been told by Caliburn about the code of chivalry, he couldn't deny the little foal what she'd asked of him… even if it meant spilling even more blood, albeit evil blood.

Part of him–a steadily growing part of him he utterly refused to acknowledge–took a distorted, savage pleasure in killing whatever his other part was resolved to put an end to. Whenever this vile side of his personality crossed his consciousness, he immediately shut his mind, fearing that it might take power and viciously spring on the nearest living thing, and he couldn't bear it if that happened to be Twilight… or Rainbow Dash.

Despite all that the cyan pegasus had done to hurt him, as if in retribution of a sort for her own psychological suffering, no matter how many times she refused to even acknowledge his existence, he wouldn't be able to bear to see her die at his hooves, if that ever were to happen. He couldn't bring himself to hate her.

His dreams before he'd been dumped in this world (he hadn't tried to dream here yet, as he had had no time to sleep) had been dark and disturbed, consumed with a feeling of either murderous joy or utter hopelessness and despair as his dream-self either ripped through cowering victims or watched everypony close to him die in agony, he powerless to stop them.

"Thank you, mister knight." The filly replied. "I'll just stay here until you get back."

"Pah!" Caliburn scoffed. "He is no knight!"

"I'll be back soon." Cobalt gritted his teeth into another forced smile, half agitated at his sword and half consumed with hopelessness. Such things make it hard for one to smile earnestly. "Come on, Caliburn."

ONE TREK LATER

Cobalt narrowed his eyes, his mouth becoming a thin line. He had just crested the top of a small slope and was looking down at a good-sized circular structure made of long stones. It looked aged and overgrown with the grass that enveloped its bases. It was built in a way that if one were to stand at one end and look across to the other, as long as he or she were not to stand in front of one of the stones, he or she would see all the way across it without difficulty.

Though that was not what consumed his attention. Standing beside the rocks, looking up at him through her helmet visor in challenge was an orange mare, with a sword sheathed on each side of her armor.

She glared up at him. "The traitor-helper!" she shouted, speaking in a country accent with a hint of medieval flair to it. It wasn't a good combination. "Thou shalt prepareth thyself for battle anon (**immediately**), and be trounced by Sir Gawain!"

Cobalt had barely time to register '_okay, Applejack… sort of'_, before Gawain sent one of the swords flying at his head and he had to register '_oh crap a sword_', dive to the side to avoid it, grab Caliburn's handle in his teeth, and leap down into battle.

**And that is what I believe is called a wrap! Yeah, I know, almost no action at all, but enough narration to fill a boat. Sorry, I got bored of 'they went there and did this' style narration. I'm being descriptive now. Descriptive is cool.**

**Also, **_**tons**_** of references to my future chapters. You won't get them yet, but when the chapters come along… think back to this one.**

**Remember, if you have any questions, just ask and I'll answer as well as I can. Radicool223 out!**


	8. The Two G's

**Inkwell: Pfft, Applejack can do anything. She is the applegoddess.**

**werewolf99: I plan to.**

Sir Gawain thought she was prepared for anything. She didn't even think that she needed to bring Galahad as backup, but Galahad had insisted. When Gawain had seen Lancelot's terrible state, and her shock at being defeated by a mere rogue, she had almost reconsidered her stance on the subject, but nevertheless set out as if she was prepared for whatever came.

What she had not prepared for was the pure rage she saw in the blue traitor's eyes. His eyes seemed to overflow with it, and his face was set in a wicked, exhilarated grin, as if he could think of nothing more fun to do right now than to engage in combat. She saw in his eyes anger, bitterness, despair, and a darker something… a sort of spiritual sickness… something that made her shudder down to the core of her bones.

She also saw a sword rushing at her face.

Clearing her thoughts at once, she rolled to the side and came up with the other sword drawn, a feat worth admiration, as the sword was sheathed in the side of her armor, and that was what she had to roll on. It was a lucky thing too, for the traitorous rogue was quicker than she was, and she had barely raised her sword in defense when he slashed against it, causing sparks to fly.

Pushing him away, she sheathed her drawn sword and caught the other in her teeth as it boomeranged back to her. This was the way in which her swords had been found, the sacred blades passed down through countless generations. The forges of old must have been more proficient than those of today, for though countless blacksmiths had tried, none could produce the same boomerang effect as her blade held.

Her rational mind screamed to call for Galahad's aid, but her pride as a Knight of the Round Table would not let her do so without giving the traitor a run for his money on her own. She decided to rely on her experience and power to counter his speed, and she held her ground.

However, he seemed ready to counter this strategy, and adapted his fighting style, doing the same, and forcing her to attack. She hurled one of her swords at him, and he dodged through the stones of the structure which they were fighting around. He dove and swerved through the stones, his movements blurring in Gawain's eyes, so that to her, it seemed as if there were ten of him rushing around, ready to attack her at any second.

She hurled the same sword once more at him, it having returned, and this time she was somewhat successful, barely clipping his right wing and crash into the ground. This momentarily took his advantage of flight, an advantage which no other pegasus knights had, for their wings were constrained under armor, and she took no hesitation in exploiting this weakness, and launched herself at a gallop toward his fallen form. She brought her remaining blade down on him, but he quickly parried the blow and spun in a maneuver that kicked up dirt around him, veiling himself from view.

Gawain backed up in confusion, for this tactic was something that she had not trained to fight against. In fact, it was really a tactic that would be associated with a coward rather than a warrior, and she briefly considered the possibility that he had fled. He had not, and instead rushed out of the dirt at her at so high a speed that she could not even raise her blade in defense. Thankfully he did not run her through, and instead kicked her with a hind leg, sending her hurting back and onto the ground.

Now the tables were turned, and she was the one on the ground as he rushed at her. She thought this was to deal the final blow, but instead he stopped in front of her and looked down, a look of what could almost be taken for sympathy on his face. "I'll need your swords." He said hoarsely, his voice rough.

"Never!" Gawain shouted in response. "Nay, I will not!"

MEANWHILE

On the other side of the clearing, atop a cliff positioned in just the right place that the warriors in the clearing wouldn't be able to see it, a blue box shuddered into existence, kicking up dust and flattening the grass in a circular radius around it. The box made a wheezing noise as it hazed into reality, becoming more and more opaque, until nopony who looked at it would be able to deny its existence.

The door opened, and a brown stallion with a green tie and an hourglass cutie mark stepped out with a large grin on his face. This grin faded as he saw his surroundings. "Oh…" he muttered, his eyes flitting left and right and drawing data from it. "Epsilon Blanca is more barren than I thought it would be… unless…" He cast a glance back in the box and shouted, "Derpy! Where do the scanners say we are?!"

"They're blank, Doctor!" a female voice shouted back out, and a gray mare, around the age of nineteen or so, joined her comrade at the entrance to the box. She had a butter yellow mane, wings, crossed eyes, and an odd cutie mark of bubbles. "Is… is that _supposed_ to happen?"

"Not Epsilon Blanca… no readings…" the stallion mused, quickly coming to the conclusion that he dreaded. "Ah… this is a little baddish."

"Baddish?" Derpy asked, tilting her head sideways in question. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well… baddish as in worse-ish than usual."

"Ish?"

"No, not usual-ish, just usual." The Doctor turned and faced his companion. "Derpy, do you remember that huge bump before we landed?"

"Yeah, it was way bigger than usual." The pegasus rubbed a fresh bruise on her side, apparently attained from said bump.

"Well… I think we fell out of time."

"How–"

"I mean that in a quite literal sense." The Doctor interrupted. "By time I mean the time vortex. We fell out of it… and landed here. An alternate dimension. Speaking of…" he twisted his head so that it was nearly upside down. "Everything's up two inches from before."

"Two inches–_alternate dimension_?!" Derpy exclaimed, her eyes going wide in panic. "B-b-but we can get back, right?!"

"Easily, yes. The TARDIS still has plenty of charge." The Doctor glanced at his unusual blue box. "But why would you want to go so suddenly? We just got here."

Derpy faced him with a half-angry, half-frightened look. "Because every _single_ time we stay in someplace like this we end up in some sort of danger, and for just once, I don't want to do that!"

"Five minutes?" the Doctor pleaded, giving his best puppy eyes.

Derpy's heart melted. "Fine." She sighed. "But only five."

"Whoopee!" the Doctor sprang into action, rushing forward to the edge of the cliff. He skidded to a stop just before he would've fallen off and peered down into the clearing. Then he saw something that worried him… something that even he wouldn't go near to for fear.

Derpy trotted up beside him and looked down at what he was looking at. "Oh hey, that's Applejack!" she grinned, spotting somepony she recognized.

"Yes… or at least a version of her." The Doctor agreed. But that wasn't what had worried him. He turned toward his companion. "Ditzy, promise me something. Promise me that you won't interfere with anything here. Not one event."

Derpy faced him with her eyebrows knit in a concerned look. He wouldn't use her real name unless he really meant what he was saying. "Okay… I promise."

"Good, because…" whatever the Doctor was going to say next trailed off into nothing. He looked down at the clearing again.

"Oh hey, there's Cobalt!" Derpy regained her smile once more. "I mean, uh, a version of him."

"Yes… he looks… darker than usual." The Doctor frowned.

"That's okay, though. He's just this dimension's version of him." Derpy shrugged that off and continued to watch the events below.

"Yes… this dimension's version…" the Doctor muttered quietly.

BACK IN THE CLEARING

Gawain was saved by a pebble.

Well… to be more specific, it was a pebble hit at high speeds by Galahad's sword. The missile made contact with the side of the blue traitor's head, causing him to flinch in pain and stumble sideways.

While Gawain used the opening to grab her swords and recover, Galahad tackled the rogue and scored a long, shallow blow along his back. This wound would not be enough to cause the ceaseless bloodflow as another one from a sacred sword would, because it would not have spilled much blood in the first place.

The rogue shot to his hooves, once again displaying more agility than any other fighter Gawain had ever seen, except perhaps Percival. He took a few staggering steps back and leaned on a stone, sides heaving as he gasped for breath.

Galahad backed up next to Gawain, a smug smile on her face. "I take it that thou need my help."

"The time for boasting is later." Gawain grumbled, eying her foe carefully. "At present, there are other matters to handle."

Unexpectedly, the traitor hurled himself in what seemed to be a last ditch effort at the two knights. Galahad parried his blade with her own, and then Gawain bucked him back into the stone that he'd been leaning on before. He hit the stone hard and slumped to the ground, unmoving.

"There." Gawain said with an air of finality. "He is unconscious. Let us finish the job while he cannot resist."

"Is such an act honorable?" Galahad wondered, frowning. "The only reason we have to do so is what the Queen hath said."

"If we can trust not the word of the Queen, then where what will become of the kingdom?" Gawain countered. "Our loyalty is to her and her alone."

"True." Galahad murmured discontentedly. This answer obviously did not put her question to rest. Nevertheless, the two advanced on the traitor, blades raised.

The front part of his mane had drooped over his eyes, casting a shadow over them, so the two could not see them. Even his sword seemed to be knocked out, its carved eyes closed. Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth, and his form seemed broken. However, as the two drew close enough, he grinned, and his sides shook with dark laughter.

Before the two could react, he lashed out with a hind leg and knocked their hooves out from under them. As they struggled to get up, he rose and laughed even harder, his eyes turning gray and his pelt seeming to radiate tangible waves of darkness. "I can't believed that worked _twice_!" his voice was harsh, like he was stabbing with words. "That was _too_ easy!"

He scooped up his own sword as well as Gawain's two and Galahad's. "I'll see you later!" he said in the same voice. Before he could walk away, though, his eyes turned green once more, and his expression switched to one of horror, tears beginning to flow out of his eyes. "I–I'm sorry…" He choked out, turning and shooting off into the distance.

But as he flew, the memory of what just happened seemed to blow away and blur with the scenery. Five minutes later, he didn't even remember any of it, knowing only that now he had three of the swords, and only one left.

**There we go, another chapter. Yeah, I just did that. I'm building up to something at the climax, just wait.**

**Oh, also for time reference, it has been about one day. It's around sunset.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	9. The Dragon Chapter?

**All right, I think the last chapter went down better than I expected… now let's get to some new stuff.**

** .773: What is? And what is Sunset Overdrive?**

**werewolf99: It was, wasn't it?**

**Inkwell: 1) I know, right?**

**2) Not just for this story.**

Cobalt Spikes hated dreams. No… more than just hated. Despised. Reviled. Wanted to put a knife in. That was the level of hatred he held them in. Not only because they were most often nightmares, but because they forced him to reveal his character, and he didn't want to be forced to do that, because he was scared of what he'd find.

Oftentimes, he longed for the carefree days of two or three months ago, when he could have a friendly race with Rainbow Dash and not worry about being caused to cough up blood, or having a headache so violent that he would become unconscious and fall out of the sky.

But this was his life now. And he had to deal with it.

This didn't stop him from hating his dreams, though.

He wandered through a dark abyss with no walls or ceiling, only an invisible floor made out of pure darkness. Then he felt himself scooped up off the ground by some sort of claw, and wondered why he didn't try to resist.

The claw set him down in another dark area, but when he tried to move forward, he ran into an invisible wall. He tried all directions, and pretty soon realized he was encased in an invisible box. A flash of dark light exploded in front of him, and he shielded his eyes from it. When it cleared, he saw Rainbow Dash and Twilight in cages hovering in what he could only assume to be the air of this place. Both of them were frozen in expressions of pure agony, and Cobalt's pupils shrunk as he saw this.

_Choose_… a voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and Cobalt somehow knew that it meant which one of the two would live or die.

He tried to open his mouth to yell out in defiance, but he was unable to speak. A chorus of screams and loud wind started up, and grew in volume until it was unbearable.

He squeezed his eyes shut and flattened his ears to try to block out the images and sounds–

And woke up in the forest he'd fallen asleep in.

His eyes shone with a gray light, and flitted around in a panic, and cold sweat dripped down his face. He jumped to his hooves, breathing shallowly as if he'd just been in a battle for his life.

The light suddenly faded from his eyes, and he realized that he'd just woken from a dream. His vision tinted red with anger, and he let out a beastly yell, as vicious as if a little bit of the feral nature of the werepony had stayed with him, even after he returned to normal. "WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH?!" he screamed, slamming his head against the nearest tree. He turned his narrowed eyes toward the black night sky, as if it were the force inside of his head that was torturing him. "I'M NOT _GOING_ TO CHOOSE! I'LL PROTECT _BOTH_ OF THEM, YOU HEAR ME?!"

His rage quickly turned into aimless confusion, and he sat down hard. He put his head in his hooves and shivered even though it wasn't cold. Tears that he hadn't even registered existed rolled down his face.

Was this what it was like to go insane?

ONE KNIGHT OF THE WIND RIFF LATER

Morning had broken and Cobalt was on the move by the time Caliburn finally woke up. The sword opened his eyes and yawned. "What amount of time was I unconscious for?" were the first words out of his mouth.

"You were out all night." Cobalt replied, not even looking down at his weapon. Caliburn suddenly noticed that he was sheathed in a weathered scabbard, and wondered where his wielder had obtained it.

"Thou dids't not think to wake me?" Caliburn asked indignantly. Cobalt instantly faced him with an angry look on his face.

"Look, Caliburn." The blue pegasus snarled. "I'm not in the mood to deal with your _crap_ right now!"

"Fine way to treat thy weapon." Caliburn muttered, but shut up nevertheless.

After a few minutes, a large cave the opened up like a pit in the ground came into view. The interior was pitch black, save for several crystals that reflected the light from the outside.

Caliburn became aware that that Cobalt was shivering, and staring down into the pit with wide, fearful eyes. "Do not tell me that thou art afraid of the mere darkness." He scoffed.

"I am." Cobalt admitted, his voice low. "There is power in the darkness…" he said, and for a brief moment, his face distorted into a crazy smile as his eyes flashed gray. But a second later it was gone, and he was back to looking fearful.

"'Tis a childish belief that the dark has power." Caliburn rebuked him.

"Maybe to you…" Cobalt murmured, staring for a moment longer, as if transfixed by the darkness of the pit. Then he recovered from this paralysis and started down into it.

BACK IN PONYVILLE

Twilight was confused. She needed more information about Shadow in order to make a judgment about the prophecy she'd received. She wanted so badly to look into the mystery of Cobalt's memory, because that seemed like the only way to find information about the enigmatic black alicorn.

What prevented her? The moment Cobalt had returned from his adventure to save the planet from being split apart, he had pleaded her not to look into it anymore. His exact words had been, 'Please… I don't _want_ to remember.'

So no matter how much she wanted to, she had promised, and had to leave the mystery untouched.

The coffee hadn't helped either. It had made her more jittery than she'd expected, and oftentimes she'd have a sudden burst of random magic that singed a shelf, or caused random flowers to grow out of the desk in her study. She tapped her hoof impatiently when two trains of thought didn't connect, and had to trot in circles to think actively when she wasn't reading.

She looked down at the print on the page one more time, and frowned as it seemed to blur together and make whimsical combinations of random letters. She rubbed her bleary eyes and wondered how long she'd been up.

Suddenly she yawned, and felt extremely tired. It was as if the rush of energy the coffee had given her had worn off and she was having a caffeine crash. This, she realized, was exactly what was happening.

"Oh, that makes sense." She said, her voice distorted by a large yawn, and, moments after she'd said that, slumped and fell fast asleep on her desk, snoring.

**(If that last bit of narration seemed a bit spasmodic, it was because I was trying to tell it from her perspective, which is half hyped up on coffee, and half in a caffeine crash. That's where I am right now.**)

BACK IN THE CAVE

Cobalt was jumpier than usual, and he had an excuse to be that way. The darkness of the cave around him freaked him out, and once in a while he thought he heard the voice whispering _choose_ in his ear. He flinched at the sound of insane laughter, and then wondered whether it had come from his mouth.

If this was madness, he wanted out.

After wandering the cave for what felt like forever, but was in reality for only a few hours, Caliburn suddenly spoke up.

"The allotted time for a quest has expired." The sword reminded Cobalt.

"And there's no dragon here." Cobalt growled. "This is a trick."

"So thou hath figured it out." A higher pitched voice than the ones that Caliburn or Cobalt were capable of making said.

"Gah!" Cobalt whirled around, unsure if this was just another one of his nightmare imaginings. The little foal from before stood there in front of him. "Small thing! Small thing!" Cobalt took a few panicked steps back and then looked at the foal with scrutiny. "H-how'd you get down here, and why are you… glowing…?"

The foal smiled. "I apologize for tricking thee. But thou hast proven thyself."

Cobalt felt himself glow with a cool, soothing light blue aura, and quicker than he could blink, he was on the surface of the ground at the entrance to the cave. Then the vertigo of the sudden teleportation hit, and he unceremoniously bent over and released the little he had in his stomach.

"What–" he panted, staggering a few good feet from the vomit. "What in Tartarus–"

The foal smiled. "Ah, I suppose I should undisguise myself." Her form shimmered, and in her place stood the pink form of the Mare of the Mere. "Once again, I apologize for tricking thee, but thou hast proven thyself worthy, and the promised prophecy shall be delivered to thee."

Cobalt frowned. Just what he needed: a prophecy to make his day even worse. "Fine, go ahead and say it. I can't imagine how this could turn out badly."

The Mare didn't detect his sarcasm, or if she did, she didn't let on, and continued with her speech. "The prophecy came to me in these words: _Darkness shall fall_."

The world was silent for a few moments, save the cawing of ravens overhead.

"Go on." Caliburn invited impatiently.

"That is all." The Mare shrugged.

"Three words? Seriously?" Cobalt gritted his teeth. "I wandered in a dark cave for hours because of three words?!"

"Ah, but there is also information that I feel obligated to deliver to thee." The Mare went on. "I understand that thou hast been looking for the four Knights of the Round Table?"

"Yeah, so?" Cobalt pressed.

"One lies in wait for thee, in yonder volcano." The Mare gestured to the distant southwest, where a faint pillar of smoke rose, billowing up into the sky and dissipating a few hundred feet up. "I do believe that Sir Percival is the last for thou to findest?"

"Yeah." Cobalt nodded. "That's great! Thanks! How'd you know that?"

"One with pure eyes can see much." The Mare gazed at him, her eyes cold like ice. He got the feeling that she was seeing much more than the surface. Like she was seeing his soul.

Cobalt frowned. His eyes weren't pure. That was sure. He shook his head and plastered on a fake smile. "Okay, thanks again, Miss 'of the Mere'. Caliburn?" he looked down at his sword. "Ready to put ourselves in mortal peril again?!"

"What dost thou think my answer will be?" Caliburn asked rhetorically.

"Um, how about, LET'S DO THIS!" Cobalt launched himself into the air and soared off toward the smoke.

**Chapter done early, coffee drunk... I'm psyched for the next one! Please bear with me. I'll have it done by at least next Tuesday at the latest. Meanwhile, I've got Mario Kart and Smash Bros to play!**


	10. Percival

**Here's another chapter early! Speaking of chapters, there are only two left.**

**Guest: Huh, I hadn't thought of it that way. That's actually a pretty cool comparison!**

**Inkwell: Nah, not twisted at all. I'm sorta the same way.**

**Zacharythehedgehog: Thanks! Oh, and are you kidding?! I'd never forget about this story. (PS, I like your story)**

**BLTSweg: Yeah, I always thought it was too lighthearted.**

**werewolf99: Indeed.**

**graysean86: Well... I guess just read it to find out what happens.**

**Psychic Nature: The world may never know... also, #LET'S DO THIS.**

Cobalt should've assumed this would happen. It should've been obvious. But of course he was an idiot and didn't even think before charging into battle.

Of course, he had to get through the mines first. That was a challenge in itself. He'd almost gotten impaled by spikes several times, and only been saved from falling into the lava by his ability to fly. Honestly, whoever had designed the mine was an idiot. Nopony in their right mind would work there.

Then again, nopony in their right mind would try to overthrow a tyranny on their own.

Cobalt was definitely not in his right mind.

So when he made his way to the centermost point of the mine, where a circular pit of lava was surrounded by a sheer rock cliff, he found himself facing a face so familiar that his pupils shrunk in shock and had to retreat a few steps.

Almost immediately he thought: I can't do this.

Sir Percival looked exactly like Rainbow Dash.

"I shall give thee one last chance, traitor!" Percival shouted, and Cobalt winced; even her voice sounded the same. "Throw down thy weapon and surrender, and I may spare thee!"

Cobalt opened his mouth to shout 'never' defiantly, but what came out more sounded like a duck being strangled. He shook his head to clear it and tried to look fierce. "NEVER!"

"Then thou shalt die!" Percival drew her sword and launched herself at him in a powerful thrust.

Cobalt drew Caliburn and tried to roll to the side and deal a counterblow, but he couldn't move his hooves, for they felt as if they were fused to the ground. He only managed to avoid getting run through by deflecting the thrust. Percival whirled around, once again hurling herself in a thrust attack. Cobalt parried the strong blow and felt himself skid a little backwards along the rocky ground from the pure force of the strike.

The fight continued for a while like this, with Percival constantly attacking and pressing Cobalt back, closer toward the edge.

At one time, Percival rested for a second, breathing hard. "What is the matter?!" she shouted, angry at Cobalt for not trying to attack. "I am fatigued! Why not strike now?!"

"Indeed!" Caliburn exhorted the dark blue pegasus. "Attack!"

"I…" Cobalt gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, once more experiencing the feeling of not being able to move. "_Can't_." he felt like something was pounding his skull from behind his eyes, like the thing inside his brain was berating him for his weakness. He took a small step backward and felt the cliff edge right behind him.

Suddenly everything arranged itself in his head, and he realized what he had to do. He set himself in a defensive stance and shouted, "If you think I'm so weak, strike _me_ down!"

Percival lifted her helmet visor and surveyed him as if to see whether he was lying or not. Cobalt did his best to look as sincere as possible, and Percival smirked, her rose-colored eyes gleaming with victory. "If thou art so anxious to die, then so be it!" she launched herself at him for what Cobalt knew would be the last–no, _must_ be the last time. He couldn't keep this up for much longer without failing to block a strike and getting killed.

He waited until the last possible moment, and then sidestepped, letting Percival careen off the cliff, unable to fly because of her armor.

He had no intention of letting her die, of course. He didn't even think he could if he tried. That might break him worse than any amount of darkness could. So he hurled himself off the cliff after her, ignoring a panicked, "WHAT ART THOU DOING?!" from Caliburn. He rocketed downward and grabbed Percival's hoof, applying backward force with his wings at the last moment to cancel his momentum downward. Then he applied even more force, because he'd not accounted for the weight of Percival's armor.

He strained a little under the weight, which no ordinary pegasus pony could carry, but he was strong enough to lift.

Percival seemed shocked that she was still alive, lifted her visor, and sheathed her sword slowly, as if unsure whether it was real or not, and was expecting it to dissolve into shadow at any moment. "Why–why dids't thou–"

Cobalt impaled Caliburn's blade in the cliff face so he could talk. "Save you?" he finished Percival's sentence.

"Indeed!" Percival's eyes regained some of their indignant fire. "Why could thou not let me die an honorable death?!"

Cobalt thought about his next words for a second. He could give the real reason, but he didn't even want to admit it to himself at this point, so instead he gave the answer he had given Lancelot. "I don't kill innocents."

Percival opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. A light blush spread out over her face. She ignored this however, as Caliburn spoke up.

"As befits a knave." The sword responded to Cobalt's words. "How would the world go on if knaves could murder whomever they chose?"

"_Stop_ with the knave stuff!" Cobalt groaned, feeling jaded that his victories over all _four_ of the best-trained knights in this dimension didn't account for anything in his weapon's mind. "I think I've at least proven myself better than a knave by now." The dark blue pegasus gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling another wave of pain crash down on his head.

"Thou–" Caliburn seemed about to further his insult, but then he closed his eyes and smiled. "Art correct."

"Wha–"

"Thou hast proven thyself worthy of another title. I name thee Cobalt Spikes, Warrior of the Wind." Caliburn said.

Percival's eyes widened. That was an honorable title. The only other pony to carry the name of a Warrior had lived over one hundred years ago, and was remembered for nothing less than driving out an entire invading force on his own. She frowned. If this sword was really as wise as legend told, and saw fit to deem the traitor with the title of Warrior, then… had she misjudged him?

The sword's next words jolted her out of her thoughts. "But for sanity's sake, get us out of this pit!"

Cobalt rolled his eyes and drew Caliburn out of the rock face, using whatever energy he had left to fly upwards toward the edge. He deposited Percival on the ground and sheathed his sword. "One condition of my victory, in place of your death." He told her. "I need your sword."

Percival, still shocked about the prior events, silently drew her sword and dropped it on the ground at Cobalt's hooves.

He picked it up and nodded. "Thank you." He said, his voice muffled through the sword handle. He turned, assuming a racer's stance and, faster than Percival could have imagined anypony other than her could move, took off in the direction of Faraway Avalon.

Percival sat there stunned for a moment, but she was jarred back into reality by Galahad's voice. She turned around to see the butter yellow pegasus standing there, shifting her hooves in what seemed like a combination of nervousness and impatience.

"Percival!" Galahad exclaimed. She then noticed her comrade's lack of a sword, and her eyes widened. "Oh no, he hath defeated thee as well!"

"What is the matter?" Percival demanded, getting to her hooves.

"We must hurry! Merluna is in Camelot Castle!"

**Two chapters left... and there is a reason for why this is early.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	11. The Explosion Part 1

**Okay, sorry about this… but the actual battle with Queen Celestia will be shorter than you probably expected. I'm not good at writing long battle scenes, for one, and also for this to be only two chapters more I have to have a little more room to write the big finale.**

**BLTSweg: **_**Cofffeee**_**… but anyway, it's Colors, just so you know.**

**Inkwell: Hah, I love those videos. Have you heard of Tardissins or Cinemaresins? They're like the same thing but for Doctor Who and MLP respectively.**

**werewolf99: Well, if you actually read the stories, you'd know that there won't be a sequel for this; I just pick up with the original.**

**Tails3456 (Chapter 8 of the original All the Elements): Thank you for your ideas, but I will politely decline. I've chosen what I have for a reason, and to make my story mine. So I'm keeping the characters the way they are, and not adding new ones as well. Good ideas though, if you ever decide to do your own story.**

**Zacharythehedgehog: Heh heh, I've got plans.**

**TheAwesomeCoolJay: Ah, hi. Haven't seen you in a while. Also, I do be spawning stories. WOOT.**

**Ugh (all the way back in X Files Chapter 7… wow): Indeed I am.**

Cobalt Spikes wasn't ready for the final battle. No way. He'd had no idea how powerful Queen Celestia had gotten since their last encounter. Last time it had been relatively easy, but this time she'd done some sort of combat enhancement magic on herself.

He felt a spike of resentment towards Merluna for not being at his side during this fight along with a stab of pain as he was slammed into a wall by a powerful strike from the Queen with the flat of her blade. He fell to the ground and felt like all of his ribs had broken. He rolled out of the way of a downward strike that would've cut him in half and flew into the air in an effort to reach higher ground that she couldn't reach with her heavy armor. He then realized that he was going nowhere, and looked down at his hooves to see that they were surrounded by a yellow light. Normally yellow was a soothing color to him, but this time it gave him a cold tingle down his side as he was slammed back into the ground by the Queen's magic.

"NO!" Celestia thundered. "NO RUNNING!"

Yeah, on the advantages scale Cobalt was scoring a big fat _zero_.

The only thing he could do was evade all the deadlier strikes at the moment and deflect the others. He was hoping he could work out some strategy to tire her out like he had with Percival, but even if he could, he doubted Celestia would be as hotheaded as the Knight, and there were no cliffs to trick her off of.

She was impressive in an, 'oh crap she's gonna kill me' way. It almost seemed as if she was some sort of fluid with solid form. One attack led to another with almost no break in motion. She was strong as well. He'd tried to duck behind a tree at one point, and nearly gotten beheaded as the blade sliced straight through the trunk.

He got a sudden, suicidal idea and launched himself straight at her, leaping straight onto her back after ducking a stab.

"Wha–hey!" she shouted, trying to throw him off. He used his wings to counter this movement, and began to hack at her neck armor.

The metal slowly but surely gave way, and out of the wound he dealt came a spurt of… liquid shadow? He gasped as the shadow flew toward him and wrapped itself around him like a blanket. His coat became a little more shaded, turning even a darker navy. His vision blurred and he fell off the Queen, coughing up even more blood.

He became aware of Caliburn shouting, "Now! The Sacred Swords!" he struggled to his hooves and brought out the swords. Staggering forward, he laid them around Celestia's fallen form. Even as he set them down, he could see the scabbard of Excalibur glowing, and Celestia starting to laugh darkly as life returned to her.

He set down the last blade, Percival's, and a shimmering circle appeared around Celestia. She rose to her hooves, but immediately collapsed again. "What?!" she gasped. "What's happening?!"

Cobalt stood up straighter and wiped the blood from his mouth. "You're dying." He said quietly.

"No!" Celestia tried to stand again, but once more fell to the ground. "Impossible!"

Cobalt gave a low, ironic laugh. "No, not impossible. You know what?" he mused thoughtfully. "I may not know who I am, but I do know one thing. I _hate_ evil. Now DIE!" he shouted the last word at the top of his lungs, and as he did so, Celestia dissolved into shadow, just like one of the knights of the underworld.

This Cobalt hadn't expected. But he wasn't going to let that stop him. As he stepped forward to grab the scabbard, the only remnant of the fallen queen, he wondered about the shadow that had turned his coat darker. Had–had he just imagined that?

_Yes_. His mind whispered the answer, and he was so desperate to believe it, he couldn't stop himself from forgetting the terrifying event.

His next question: was that wound on his side healed yet? He shifted aside the magic bandage and observed the cut. To his relief, it seemed to have scarred over, and the scar was fading, his fur growing rapidly over it. Pretty soon it would be nothing but a memory.

He picked up the scabbard of Excalibur in his teeth and nodded to Caliburn, launching himself into the air and up to the courtyard of the castle.

ONE KNIGHT OF THE WIND RIFF LATER

Merluna felt cornered, to say the least. She nevertheless focused on looking calm and collected, like she had reason to be where she was. She stood in front of a tree in the courtyard of Canterlot Castle, waiting for the not-hero to return with the scabbard.

Sometimes those with heroic qualities could be so easy to manipulate. So _gullible_.

She was surrounded on all sides (except for the one with tree, but that felt like an enemy itself at this point. Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, and Percival surrounded her on the four remaining sides, and though they were unarmed, they seemed menacing enough on their own.

"Merluna!" Gawain shouted. "Thou hast committed treason in the highest, against the queen herself, and therefore thou shalt die!"

"Kill me?" Merluna smiled, purely to make them more irritated. "With what? Thou hast no weapon."

"I hath my magic." Lancelot growled, her horn glowing.

"MERLUNA!"

Merluna looked up toward the source of the voice, and for a moment she thought that one of the knights of the underworld had learned to speak and was now descending upon her from a rift in the sky. Then she looked closer and saw that it was only a battered and bruised Cobalt fluttering down from one of the towers.

Cobalt had no joy on his face as he laid the Scabbard of Excalibur in front of Merluna. His eyes were cold–had they turned gray, or was that just her imagination? "Here." He muttered, raising his voice for the next sentence. "THE QUEEN IS DEAD!"

A collective gasp went up from the Knights, and the immediately turned their attention toward the young warrior.

"Though–" Cobalt added upon seeing some of the looks of hatred on their faces, "_I_ think she was never alive." He glared up at Merluna. "When I _killed_ her, she dissolved into shadow like a knight of the underworld. Care to explain?"

Merluna shifted uncomfortably; she would have to enact her plan earlier than expected. However, she displayed none of her inner discomfort about the circumstances in which she would do her dark deed, picking up the scabbard with her magic and smiling. "I would." She responded to Cobalt's prompt. "The truth–well, the truth is that there was never a Queen Celestia to begin with."

The Knights gave another collective gasp, while Cobalt merely rolled his eyes and twirled his hoof to say, 'go on'.

Merluna gulped at the risk she was putting herself in (what if one of the Knights were to kill her before she finished?) and plowed on. "She was nothing more than an illusion created to appease the masses by my grandfather, Starswirl the Bearded."

"Yeah, but you need the scabbard why?" Cobalt pressed.

"I intend to use it to right my father's mistakes." Merluna turned the simple levitation spell she was using into one that involved bouncing dark magic off the scabbard like a beacon. Her opportune positioning–at the middle of the top of the castle–would make the task even easier. "And you cannot stop me!" her icy blue eyes flashed silver and the four Knights plus one Warrior were blasted back by an invisible wave of energy.

Lancelot got to her hooves and raised her visor, revealing her panicked purple eyes. She surveyed the glowing Merluna, and turned toward Cobalt. "Warrior! We need our weapons!"

"Fine!" Cobalt nodded, doing one of his lightning-fast recovery moves and dropping the swords at the feet of the still recovering Knights. "But only to get out of here, not to fight her!"

"For what reason not?!" Galahad demanded, picking up her sword between her teeth.

At that moment, a huge earthquake shook the castle, and the sky turned blood red. Large, sharp pillars of white stuff began to rise out of the ground. They looked solid enough to spear a pony and quite a bit more while they were at it. The walls that had held for centuries began to crumble, and Cobalt took a calm step to the side as the area just under him dissolved into nothing. "That's why." He said as if nothing had happened. Then his eyes narrowed and he began snapping out orders. "Okay, leave your armor behind! You can get it later," he added upon seeing the Knights' incredulous looks. "Right now we need speed! Pegasi, fly out of here, the skies should be safe enough."

Galahad and Percival nodded to show they understood, and immediately left their armor and flew over the newly forming Dark Castle walls.

Cobalt turned his attention to the purple unicorn. "Lancelot, teleport out of here, same direction as the pegasi–take the rest of the armor if it means so much to you."

Lancelot nodded and vanished along with the Galahad's, Percival's, and Gawain's armor in a flash of lavender light, which left Gawain looking around startled, her armor having suddenly been teleported off her body.

"Gawain–" Cobalt set his jaw as he looked at the remaining Knight. "You can't get out of here any way but on hoof. So you're with me."

Gawain wasn't necessarily sure that was a good thing.

FIVE MINUTES LATER

Gawain soon realized that it was a good thing. Although she'd had more training than the rogue warrior, he'd obviously gotten more field experience than her since yesterday.

He seemed perfectly in his element as he slashed and stabbed the knights of the underworld, fighting side by side with her. She could hardly believe that they had been fighting merely the day before. She still guarded her back warily, though, for she worried that he might again show that dark side that had possessed him during their last encounter. She had not entirely forgotten that–or forgiven him–yet.

Literally seconds before the old castle collapsed completely, the two pushed through the front gate and made it out onto the lawn in front of the front of the castle. As they watched, the castle crumbled, the previous walls dissolving as the new whitish material made a new castle on top of it, with swooping walls and curved edges that cleaved the sky itself.

Cobalt looked at the scene of destruction, and terrifyingly felt a rush of happiness at seeing it. He felt himself, to his utter horror, desire more of it. Some strange, dark tickling at the back of his mind wanted this whole world to fall at his hooves, but this time to never be replaced.

Almost as instantly as this feeling reared its head, it vanished, and he was back to feeling the normal, moral despair a pony should feel in his situation.

Then he felt queasy, and his vision went black.

**That's a wrap! One chapter left. Expect it to be long, expect it to take a week at least, and expect one of the most significant chapters I've written yet.**

**Also, I'm going to tell you a few of the themes I've been playing with throughout the course of the chapters, just so you can look back and see if you caught them:**

**Sickness, in all senses of the word, which is the one I think I used the most.**

**Decay. This was one of the fewest used, but it's clearly evident in this last chapter.**

**Insanity. I think I just said this one outright a few times, so yeah.**

**Darkness. Obvious, but I figured I'd say it anyway.**

**Innocence and Guilt. Those were two big ones as well.**

**And lastly, The Question of When it is Right to Kill.**

**So I guess chew on those until the next chapter, and I'll see you next week.**

**Radicool223 out!**


	12. The Explosion Part 2

**Ah yes, another blank page to fill with words. I love this part.**

**TheSonicGamer99: Hah, oh definitely.**

**Zacharythehedgehog: Oh stop it, you're making me blush. But in all seriousness, thanks, and I don't mind at all if you take some pointers.**

**BLTSweg: Exciting is what I was aiming for.**

**Christian Ape99: Oh, another name change. Great. Just what we need. By the way, you mentioned your fan characters, so I'm deleting your comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.**

**Inkwell Lynx: I intend to raise a lot of questions. I'm taking pointers from classical literature, and that's what it does best. Gawain is boss.**

Cobalt's dreams were disturbed, as usual. He almost had to sleep with one eye open these days, just to prevent himself from seeing the awful visions on repeat once again. Apparently there was a set amount of ways for his friends to die.

Sadly, that made him feel better.

He wandered through Ponyville at night. Everything seemed normal, but when he looked up… that wasn't the night sky as he remembered it. Luna's moon was nowhere to be seen, and the stars were shut out. With a shock, he realized that the entire planet was enveloped with darkness.

Sickly, he enjoyed it.

He wandered around some more, and noticed several dead bodies of ponies that he knew lying slumped up against the sides of buildings. He smiled coldly. In his dream self's mind, they deserved it for never noticing the private Tartarus he'd been living in.

He tried to turn around and go back the way he came, but his legs wouldn't move. He felt as if there were strings attached to his hooves, holding him in place.

_I'm a puppet_. He realized with horrible certainty. _That's all I am_.

And indeed, in his mind at least, he was nothing. He had no value. The only thing he was there to be was the marionette of that… thing… in his head.

And the worst part of it was: he could see no way out of it. No matter what resistance he put forth, he could never eradicate the thing. It would just sit there and cause him mental and physical torture. He had no way of combating it. It wasn't something that lived inside his head; it was the one in control.

Then something inside of him snapped. He bared his teeth like a feral animal and let out a shout. "NO!" he snarled, shaking loose the invisible strings that bound him to the will of the thing. "THIS IS _MY_ DREAM! _I_ AM IN CONTROL!"

He stood there for a moment in an aggressive stance, seething with rage, until he became aware of a soft chuckle. It came from everywhere and nowhere at all, which gave him vertigo. "_Hah, little fool._" It said coldly. "_If you wish to think that way, then so be it._"

Cobalt gasped as the air was sucked out of him, he felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He bent over and started to breathe hard. A drop of blood spilled out of his mouth. Then he felt a dagger being run slowly down his side. He cried out in pain, trying to find the source of whatever was doing this so he could hit it, but he could see nothing except the cut growing larger and larger.

The voice spoke again, but this time in Percival's voice. "Warrior! Warrior?!"

"I'm fine." Cobalt said the first two words he could think of as he was jerked back into consciousness. It was almost sad, the frequency with which he said those words. He often said them when the thing caused him pain, even if nopony had asked him about it, just to prevent them asking in the first place. It made him look at himself bitterly, every time he told that lie. He just had to reassure himself that he was doing this for everypony's good.

"Warrior! Wakest thou up!"

Cobalt looked up and saw Percival looking down at him concernedly. He sat up and looked around. He was in a rocky enclosure with high, jutting sides, but a clear view back to the castle in the distance. He took one look at the new appearance of the castle and shook his head to clear it, as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Bad, is it not?" Lancelot remarked. She was leaning against a nearby rock, her eyes half-closed as if in thought. "The entire castle hath been destroyed."

"Man." Cobalt remarked, looking over at the castle as he slowly got back into the swing of reality, stuffing all his internal thoughts to the side in order not to break down into a crying mess. He had to appear normal. He couldn't afford to feel bad for himself. "Merluna's got no remodeling sense." He drew Caliburn and let the sword hover. "Yo Caliburn, what do you figure?"

"I assume two things based on the current situation." Caliburn didn't waste time in conversation, having seen the blood-colored sky and new castle. "I believe that–if the legend is correct–Merluna will have withdrawn herself to Parallel Avalon."

"Cool, so we go and beat her." Cobalt shrugged. "How do we get there?"

"That is my second assumption." Caliburn went on. "In order to open the passage to there, the four sacred swords must be placed in the sacred stones surrounding Avalon."

"Oh… so that means…"

"That means that is where we give thee help." Galahad supplied gently. Seeing the confused look on Cobalt's face, she smiled. "Dids't thou think that thou might have to do this task entirely on thy own?"

"What is the point?!" Gawain wailed, staring at the castle in dismay. "The castle is destroyed! The Queen is dead!"

"'Tis a point." Lancelot agreed, not looking up. "We all did agree that in the case of the situation being this bleak, we would disband and do everything we could to salvage the world. So therefore–"

"But this is a new situation!" Percival interrupted, her eyes wide with pleading. "All is not lost! The Queen may be dead, yet we have a new leader!" To Cobalt's utter surprise, she was pointing at him. "He hath been given the title of Warrior, a rank which far outstrips us all!" Percival went on. "Dost thou think that he, who hath _just_ saved us from doom at the hooves of Merluna, is not capable of saving the world _and_ the Round Table?"

"She has a point." Caliburn supported the hotheaded Knight.

"Ah see thy position." Gawain mused with a nod, now looking more thoughtful than anything else. "But–oh, Ah shall just say it–how shall we trust him?"

"Guys?" Cobalt spoke up. "I won't betray you. I know that sounds stupid, just saying it, but I mean it. Even if I _didn't_ like you all, I'd be allied with you. I _hate_ evil."

Lancelot frowned. "I shall aid thee." She said flatly, standing straight up and walking over to Cobalt. She leaned forward until their noses almost touched. "Warrior." She said quietly, so only he could hear. "Thy eyes are cold. They are gray. But I shall trust thee anyway."

Cobalt gulped as the purple mare backed away. Why had she done that… what had she meant? His eyes were cold… that was probably. But what did she mean when she told him his eyes were gray? Had they actually turned gray, or did that have double meaning?

"Then we are all in agreement." Galahad said, turning her teal eyes toward Gawain. "Except for thee, Gawain."

"Ah shall aid him." Gawain said quickly.

"Then explain to us our task." Galahad said to Cobalt.

Cobalt frowned, running a hoof through his mane to help him think. "Er–ah–let's see…" he glanced at Caliburn. "Caliburn, where're the stones?"

"One in the forest, one in the plains, one in the dragon's cave, and one in the mine." Caliburn listed.

"Okay…" Cobalt thought for a moment, assessing which of the Knights would be best suited for which area. Percival would be best for the mine, given her agility and ability to fly, and Gawain would do best in the plains, since she was an earth pony… but that left Galahad and Lancelot. Lancelot, he guessed, would be better in the shadows of the forest, where her coat would blend in more. Galahad would stick out like a daffodil on a dirt road. "So… Percival, you take the mine; Gawain, the plains; Galahad, you in the cave; and Lancelot, you have the forest. That good?"

The four nodded. Galahad looked uncertain for a moment, and then asked, "Warrior what wills't thou do while we are on the tasks?"

Cobalt set his jaw. "Save as many unconverted citizens as possible. I plan to be a big old thorn in the side of Merluna's plans until I can fight her directly."

"That is honorable." Caliburn said approvingly.

Percival, meanwhile, was having a severe inner argument with herself. Finally, she threw aside all doubt and strode forward. "Cobalt Spikes." She said respectfully to the dark blue pegasus. Then she leaned forward and kissed him passionately.

This was what she'd been debating in her mind. Half of her had said that this was a bad idea and to stay away at all costs, while the other half of her had said that she should go for it. Ever since he'd saved her at the mine, Percival had struggled about how she felt toward the mysterious dark blue warrior, and why he made her feel the way he did. Now she had settled on what feelings she had toward him, and in kissing him made them known.

To her surprise, he didn't pull away. After tensing in shock, he deepened the kiss. The other Knights probably reacted in some way, but the two didn't notice. They were in their own little bubble. A full ten seconds went by before Caliburn cleared his throat (do swords have throats?) and said, "If you two are quite done…"

Percival pulled away, her cheeks a deep red, and swallowed hard. "Good luck to thee, Warrior."

Then the four knights departed, leaving Cobalt sitting there with a blank look and a blush on his face, wondering why he'd just let that happen.

MUCH LATER

A good ten or so hours later, Cobalt fell to the ground, breathing hard, as a knight of the underworld slashed him across the chest, leaving a bloody gash. His vision went fuzzy and he struck out blindly forward, impaling the knight straight through the neck, so that it fell to the ground, dead.

Strangely, his mind was focused on other matters such as: why had he allowed Percival to kiss him like that? Could it have just been because he was longing for some sort of affection after so much mental torture? No, that was a stupid thought. He'd only been here two days.

That left another option that made him nervous just to think about. He knew that he'd let Rainbow Dash go… could he possibly be still harboring affection toward her? Had he let Percival kiss him because of her similarity to Rainbow Dash?

_No_. He told himself. _No, that can't be it_.

As he thought about it, though, it appeared to make the most sense. Even though Rainbow Dash was doing everything possible to push him away, he still looked at her with some sort of little glimmer of hope that they could get back together.

Gulping, he realized that he still did love Rainbow Dash.

He then realized that he had absolutely no idea how to tell Twilight.

BACK IN EQUESTRIA

Twilight felt like both stabbing and kissing Shadow, maybe both at the same time. She wanted to strangle him for being so enigmatic, and yet at the same time endearing. She didn't know how to figure her feelings for him, or how to handle the matter that Cobalt had now been missing for a total of 51 hours, 39 minutes, and 12… 13 seconds.

Twilight liked to be exact.

She wondered exactly how the dark blue pegasus was feeling at the moment, and if he was dealing with such conflicted feelings as he was.

_No… impossible_. She smiled and smoothed out a tuft of hair sticking up out of her mane. _He's probably just out there having some sort of adventure_.

She glanced out the library window and frowned as she noticed several dark gray clouds rolling in. She narrowed her eyes and checked the position of the sun in the sky. It was hanging around the middle of the sky, suggesting that it was around noon, but the pegasi weren't supposed to have another storm for days… and even then it wasn't supposed to be this big.

Rain began to splatter lightly against the window, and steadily gained force.

Twilight frowned, dismissing the occurrence. There was probably just some rescheduling going on with the Apple Farm. It _had_ been dry lately. She turned back around and once more began to think about her own feelings… specifically toward Shadow.

Gulping, she allowed herself to for the first time wonder what she'd tried so hard to put off thinking about. She wondered whether she had some sort of serious affection toward Shadow, beyond the bounds of a simple crush.

While she pondered that, another idea came to mind, an idea so good she wondered why she hadn't thought of it before. She could ask Princess Celestia about this. The Princess didn't know about her relationship with Cobalt.

On that train of thought, she levitated over a sheet of parchment and a quill and quickly scribbled out a letter relating her feelings toward an 'anonymous stallion', and on an afterthought, added 'send reply by teleportation'. Then she tried a trick that she hadn't ever tried before, because she'd never had to send a letter in secret before. She couldn't risk Spike seeing this. She levitated the paper into the air and squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating hard on Princess Celestia, trying to imagine the letter appearing right at the side of her trusted mentor.

When she opened her eyes again, the paper had disappeared, and she sighed in relief. Hopefully the letter had gotten to the right place. Now all that was left to do was wait for a reply.

After a few minutes of anxious waiting and pacing, Twilight heard a paper drop to the floor behind her, and looked around to see an envelope with Princess Celestia's signature on it resting on the floor. The letter appeared to be staring up at her lazily, as if to say, 'well, you've got me, now are you going to read me?'

Twilight giggled somewhat insanely. Now she was personifying envelopes.

She levitated the letter up to reading level and opened the envelope. She brought out the letter itself and began to read (in her head this time, not aloud as she usually did. It would be embarrassing if Spike were to hear this.). As she read, her ears flattened and she got increasingly more nervous.

The Princess was all for her feelings toward the 'anonymous stallion'. She was at that age, after all. Her mentor also added that it was natural to want to strangle that pony as well, given that opposites have a tendency to attract. The Princess even remembered a stallion that she had taken a fancy to who was her opposite in nearly everything.

Twilight frowned, wondering whether, if Celestia knew exactly _which_ stallion she liked, she might immediately revoke her approval.

But even so, Celestia had given her good will toward Twilight's feelings toward the stallion the purple unicorn had described as 'the single most confusing pony on the face of Equestria'.

The only thing she couldn't figure out was how to break this to Cobalt.

BACK WITH COBALT

Cobalt didn't think that an explosion of darkness could ever mean anything good, but apparently it could, for as a black mushroom cloud erupted in the distance, Caliburn exclaimed, "That is it! The door to Parallel Avalon has been opened!"

"Seriously? We're supposed to go _toward _the black cloud?" Cobalt asked, more tired than incredulous at this point. Nevertheless, he launched himself toward the cloud of darkness at top speed, smashing another dark hole through the sound barrier.

His dark trail seemed to mesh with the converted world's natural shadow. As he got closer, he started to slow, and lowered his speed to sub supersonic so he could converse with Caliburn. "What do I do?!" he shouted.

"Fly into it!"

"WHAT?!"

"Fly into it to get to Parallel Avalon!"

Cobalt began to hyperventilate. He hadn't planned on going _into_ the darkness. That was a step he wasn't ready to take. But he was going too fast to bank anyway, and he crashed straight into the wall of darkness.

IN PARALLEL AVALON

The darkness seemed to cling to him like some sort of mist, and he shook himself to try and get it off. It didn't budge.

He heard a feminine laugh, and pushed farther into the darkness to find himself in a dark courtyard, like that of a castle, but only the courtyard remained. Everything else seemed to fall out around him in decay. Merluna hovered in front of him, a serene smile on her face that didn't fit the atmosphere of the place.

Cobalt wanted to join her in smiling.

The darkness was overpowering here. Every step Cobalt took was wracked with pain, but it seemed to come from a distance, like he'd left his old self behind, and was a newer, better, darker version of himself.

Was this what it was like to be discorded?

He shook his head to dismiss the thoughts, and shouted instead to Merluna. "Merluna! Can't you see that this is wrong?!"

Merluna laughed again. "No, little _hero_." She said the word mockingly. "This is what is meant to happen. The kingdom must be consumed by darkness in order to live on."

"What?"

"This kingdom will die. The story is ending. But with the power of darkness, it will never die. Isn't that better?"

Merluna's words were like waves of energy, battering Cobalt with their persuasive power. He had to restrain himself from nodding in agreement, and instead thought up a counterpoint. "But all stories must end! That's what gives them value! What's the point of a story that never ends?!"

Merluna smiled. "You know you don't believe that. You're grasping at straws, little one. Even now the darkness is choking you." As she said this, Cobalt could feel the waves of darkness creeping up his legs like moss on a tree trunk. She went on, "You are weak. Why not join me? I can give you power."

"Join _you_?!" Cobalt exclaimed incredulously with a bitter laugh. "I'll never join you!" and with those words, he ripped himself free of the darkness at his hooves and launched himself at Merluna, who merely extended her hoof and knocked him back with a wave of energy.

As he tried to get up from the ground, he heard Merluna say something else.

"I think I'll kill the Knights. It's too risky to keep them alive."

There is a point which all living creatures have. This point is called the breaking point. This is the point at which the creature cannot take it anymore and simply snaps.

Cobalt's eye twitched. That was it. He'd had it. All it had taken was those seven words to push him over the edge. He lost the will to resist the darkness. He gave himself over to it. He summoned up all the anger, fear, bitterness, and despair he'd harbored over the last two days–

And let it explode in one, huge scream.

His eyes turned dark gray. His fur turned the same color. His mane turned pure black. He drew Caliburn, who had been knocked unconscious from the journey through the portal to Parallel Avalon.

The sword was lucky.

Cobalt seemed to radiate a dark energy. He hovered off the surface of the ground. He looked so terrifying that any ordinary bystander would've run screaming.

"_You want to make this a dark battle_?" he asked Merluna, his words as powerful as daggers. "_WE'LL MAKE THIS A DARK BATTLE!_"

Merluna's eyes widened as Caliburn extended into a black lance.

Cobalt–or, rather, the creature he had become–laughed maniacally, as if he was enjoying Merluna's fear. He advanced slowly, walking on the air. Merluna reared up and shot darkness at him. However, the beams that normally should've killed him… didn't. The instead seemed to reflect off him like he had some sort of shield.

As he advanced, Merluna backed away, throwing everything she had at him to no avail. Eventually she backed into an invisible wall, and her pupils shrunk as Cobalt advanced on her.

He smiled coldly as he came to a halt, standing over her cowering form. "_This one couldn't resist_." He gestured to himself as he said this. "_You've already almost given yourself entirely over. You think you stand a chance? Let's see how well you can resist THIS_!"

He raised his lance for the killing blow, but before he could, Merluna saw something that she almost wished she hadn't–something that made her _pity_ him. As he stood, ready to murder her, his face distorted into something much different than the smiling, cold visage he wore. For just one moment –be it only that–his face twisted into one of absolute horror and sadness. The face said plainly, 'I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry I couldn't stop this.'

And then the dark expression returned, and the lance plunged down into her. It didn't hurt, as she thought it would, but she felt herself wrapped in darkness, and then she didn't feel anything else.

SOME AMOUNT OF TIME LATER

Cobalt wasn't sure how long he sat in the corner of his mind, sobbing. He–he'd _failed_. He hadn't been able to restrain the darkness. It had overpowered him, shoved him into the corner of his mind.

He had no knowledge of what the darkness was doing with his body, but he did know one, horrible, terrible thing: he'd been right. He was just a puppet. He couldn't stop the darkness. It was overpowering. His resistance was meaningless. The only thing that he could do… that is, if he ever got the chance… was to protect his friends from it.

His mental fortitude had cracked. His will had been crushed. He hadn't put up enough of a fight to keep the darkness inside. He needed–what did he need? He didn't even know anymore. Companionship? A sense of support?

"_A way out?_" the voice asked. Cobalt glanced up into the blank space with bleary eyes. "_Yes, I'm offering you control of your physical form once more._" The voice went on.

Cobalt didn't understand. Why would the thing do that? It had gotten what it wanted: complete and total control. Why would it suddenly give that up?

"_I can sense your wondering_." The voice said. "_It seems that I overexerted myself._"

Cobalt tried something that he hadn't for a while: he spoke. "O-overexerted?"

"_Yes, you are far too weak for me let out my full power just yet_. _I am restricted until I gain more strength._ _You can't stop that, by the way_." The thing added; it must've sensed Cobalt's spike in hopefulness. "_But, if you wish, I can give you your physical form again, and I even offer a way back to your home._"

Cobalt was too weak to even think about whether he should say yes or no. His throat was too dry to answer, so he simply gave a weak nod.

"_Good_…" The voice murmured.

Suddenly, color returned to the world. Cobalt found himself standing in the middle of the castle courtyard, somehow restored to its former glory. He had time to look at his coat, and see that it had returned to a gray-blue, still darker than it had been when he arrived in this world, but not dark gray, at least. Then his legs buckled and he collapsed on the ground.

He heard the sound of hooves running toward him, and looked up at where they were coming from. He managed to make out pony-shaped figures, and upon further observation, he noted that they were the four knights.

Once again suppressing his pain and emotion, he stood up and put on a fake smile. "Who's the stallion?" he asked rhetorically in a weak voice as they approached him.

"Is the traitor dead?" Lancelot asked, her eyes still narrowed as though there were a threat. _There is_. Cobalt thought. _Me_.

"I–" Cobalt stopped to think. The events after he'd let the darkness overwhelm him had gone fuzzy, as if he were viewing them through several layers of glass. "Yes." He answered, after quickly running the images through his head several times.

But–what was he sad about? As the images became fuzzier, his sense of depression lessened. Why was he feeling depressed? He'd just defeated Merluna and saved this world!

Now, as an outside observer, who can remember what he can not, we know that once again his memories were being blurred in order to lessen his resistance. But unfortunately for him, this knowledge evades him as of yet.

"Thou. Art. Amazing!" Percival exclaimed, a grin crossing her face. She hugged him, and Cobalt flinched at her touch. She drew back, looking concerned at his reaction. "Art thou okay?"

"I'm fine." Cobalt said. "I'm just… a little jumpy, I guess."

"We owe thee our thanks." Gawain nodded to him.

"But–who shall be our ruler?" Galahad voiced her concerns. "Thee?"

"No." Cobalt drew Caliburn, who had reverted to his normal state, and laid the still sleeping sword on the ground. "Let him decide. He _is_ the wisest sword ever, after all."

"But what of thee?" Percival asked, seeming nervous.

"I have to return home." Cobalt answered, and upon seeing Percival's crestfallen expression at the news, he added, "Don't worry. There's gotta be a version of me somewhere in this world."

Percival gasped and nodded, understanding what he meant.

Cobalt's vision suddenly hazed, and he looked down. His body had gained a layer of transparency, and he panicked for a second before the voice in his head spoke up. _Your transport._

"Sorry guys, but this is where I go back home." Cobalt said, feeling himself vanish even more.

"Cobalt Spikes, thy eyes are still gray." Lancelot told him, staring straight at his eyes, and Cobalt once more got the uncanny feeling that she was reading his soul and poring through his secrets.

But then he vanished fully, and his vision went black as he was hurtled back into his own world.

**So… Cobalt won… and lost. Bet you all didn't expect that one!**

**Okay, for you guys who haven't caught onto the system yet (really my fault; I'm the one who hasn't explained it well): the next chapter of the All the Elements for Disaster story will appear in the actual story All the Elements for Disaster. Look for that around next week.**

**Radicool223 out!**


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